By 
Regretting You (2025)
As the opening credits roll on Josh Boone’s latest adaptation, you’re invited into a world of sharp emotion and soft lighting, where grief and second chances intertwine within the kind of family bonds you expect — yet still manage to feel genuine and affecting. Based on the 2019 novel by Colleen Hoover, Regretting You is very much a popcorn-romance tear-jerker dressed in streaming-movie clothes, and despite a few creaky mechanics, it ultimately earns its moments of sweetness and heart.
“Here’s to poor choices and second chances.”
At its core, Regretting You unfolds as a multi-generational story about how love and betrayal ripple through time. Morgan Grant (Allison Williams) became a mother too young, marrying her high-school sweetheart Chris (Scott Eastwood) and devoting the next seventeen years to keeping their tidy suburban life afloat with teenage daughter Clara (McKenna Grace). Beneath the calm, though, Morgan’s marriage is running on autopilot and Clara’s adolescent defiance is starting to echo her mother’s younger self. Then a sudden car accident shatters everything, killing both Chris and Morgan’s younger sister Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald). In the messy aftermath of grief, Morgan begins to piece together unsettling clues that suggest the two weren’t just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The truth of what really bound them slowly comes to light — that Chris and Jenny had been having an affair — a revelation that forces Morgan to confront every choice she’s made since she was sixteen, and to reckon with the version of her life she thought she understood.
As Morgan tries to hold her family together, Clara’s own world begins to spin. She finds refuge in classmate Miller (Mason Thames), a smooth operator who represents freedom and first love, while her mother seeks comfort in Jonah (Dave Franco), Jenny’s widower and Morgan’s long-ago flame. Their parallel stories — one about discovering love for the first time, the other about rediscovering it after devastation — anchor the film’s emotional heartbeat. Across their intertwined grief, secrets and second chances, Regretting You charts how forgiveness becomes the only way forward, even when the past refuses to stay buried.
Flirting, directed by Josh Boone.
Boone and screenwriter Susan McMartin clearly aim to heighten emotion, and there’s plenty here to like: the film looks polished (even if it carries a slight TV sheen), the drama is direct, and the characters are instantly accessible. At the same time, the whole thing has a strong Hallmark-channel vibe — you know there will be tears, redemption, and a warm, cathartic close. The script delivers the familiar beats — grief, betrayal, confession, reconciliation — though the transitions sometimes feel a little too smooth, the edges softened just enough that some of the rawness slips away. Yet there are moments when that smoothness gives way to something rawer. When Morgan discovers hidden letters between Chris and Jenny, the truth lands like a gut punch, and the kitchen confrontation that follows — where Jonah coaxes her to release her pent-up anger by throwing eggs at a piece of art — stands out as one of the film’s most resonant moments, showing how pain can be expressed, not suppressed. It’s here that Boone’s sentimental touch finally lands, balancing heartbreak with a sense of cathartic release.
But for what it’s worth, if you’re in the mood for something that lets you care without working too hard, Regretting You delivers. The themes of mother–daughter conflict, the fear of repeating your parents’ mistakes, and the quiet hope that love can return after devastation are all there — and handled with a disarming sincerity. Clara’s journey is especially well drawn: she resents the path her mother took, resents being trapped in the fallout of tragedy, yet by the end she begins to claim her own story with surprising maturity. Morgan, meanwhile, is flawed but steadfast; you feel the push and pull between her instinct to protect and her need to finally let go. The romantic threads — Morgan and Jonah, Clara and Miller — are lighter than expected and wisely kept in the background, serving as punctuation to the emotional arc rather than overtaking it. The result is a film that’s warm, watchable, and quietly touching, even when it plays by familiar rules.
Turning to the performances, everyone does a solid job here. Allison Williams brings her usual assured energy to Morgan — she isn’t perfect, she’s haunted, and you believe her attempts at connection and at pulling herself together. McKenna Grace is excellent as Clara — poised, conflicted, wounded — but still capable of letting herself be seen and changed. Dave Franco is a bit of fun: his Jonah is sympathetic, earnest, perhaps slightly too clean-cut, but the guy has charm and holds his lane. Meanwhile, the youthful energy of Mason Thames as Miller adds a flirty bad-boy edge (yes, usually with a lollipop in his mouth) that brings a welcome counterpoint to the more serious mother-daughter arc. And the supporting cast — like Sam Morelos as Lexie, Clara’s best friend who delivers legitimate comic relief, and Clancy Brown in a smaller but solid turn as Hank “Gramps” Adams — round out the cast with warmth and depth. Brown brings gentle gravitas to Hank, who’s quietly battling cancer, adding an undercurrent of fragility to his otherwise steady presence.
Now, yes: the younger-version flashbacks of Williams and Franco — in which they play teenage Morgan and Jonah — are a touch silly; makeup and wigs can only do so much, and seeing adults pretend to be their younger selves briefly breaks the spell. But on balance, it’s a forgivable choice, and keeping the same actors ultimately works in the film’s favor, maintaining emotional continuity and letting their shared history feel that much more genuine.
Over-easy? Not this conversation.
In short, Regretting You may not reinvent the family-romance wheel, and it may lean heavily into the “feel good after feel bad” blueprint, but it does so with enough heart, strong performances, and a lightness that makes it a legitimately fun popcorn film. It’s also a nice touch that several scenes take place in a cinema, where movie buff Miller works — those moments add a subtle wink to the audience and a self-aware charm. Even if it feels more like a streaming drop than a big-screen spectacle, you’ll leave the theatre feeling emotionally warmed, maybe teary, and quietly content. For fans of the genre — or anyone who wants to switch off and watch these characters find their way through love, loss, and forgiveness — this one won’t leave you regretting the time spent.
3 / 5 – Good
Reviewed by Dan Cachia (Mr. Movie)
Regretting You is released through Paramount Pictures Australia
