Regretting You delivers a heartfelt, emotionally charged story about love, grief and the complicated bond between mother and daughter. The film, based on Colleen Hoover’s novel, leans heavily on intense emotions. Although some of its plot points are predictable, many intriguing aspects are exhibited within this movie, such as the portrayal of a messy family life.
Nisa Dasdemir, a senior at Green Hope who went to see Regretting You with her friends, said, “If you just want to have fun with your friends and just laugh, I would recommend it. But if you’re there for the plot and the emotional level, I wouldn’t recommend it.” She rated it a 7/10 movie, but shared that the movie wasn’t what she expected. The movie was popular on social media, and she mentioned seeing numerous reels of people saying they love it and crying after it finished. After watching, she felt, “it was overrated” and “there wasn’t enough plot for it to be this popular.” All in all, she didn’t regret watching it because it made her and her friends laugh and have a good time at the movies.
Regretting You centers on the emotional fallouts between a mother and daughter after a sudden tragedy exposes long-buried secrets. The film opens by introducing a tight-knit group of teenagers – Morgan, Chris, Jenny and Jonah – before cutting to the present, where Chris and Jenny are killed in a car accident. Their deaths unravel into a deeper betrayal when it’s revealed that the two were having an affair, a twist highlighted in The Direct’s spoiler breakdown. This revelation becomes the emotional anchor of the plot, forcing Morgan and her daughter Clara to go through grief, anger and the painful realization that their family was not what they thought. Green Hope junior, Sara Patel, put it, “The ending ties together so many messy emotions – grief, forgiveness, growing up – and it made me think a lot about how complicated parent-teen relationships really are.” Her reaction mirrors the film’s strength: its willingness to treat mother-daughter tensions not as background drama, but as the central force of the story.
Still, the movie’s storytelling choices have mixed responses. The structure-shifting between Morgan’s and Clara’s perspectives creates emotional depth, but some critics argue that it creates too much confusion and leans too heavily into excessive emotion and drama. Rotten Tomatoes reflects this divide, showing a lukewarm audience response and mixed critical reactions. Yet for younger viewers, the plot feels grounded in reality. Patel noted that one scene “hit the hardest:” the confrontation when Clara finally learns the truth about her father and Jenny, because “it felt like the emotional blow-up that actually happens in real families.” Her reaction helps underline why the film resonates with teens: it portrays secrecy, misunderstandings and the struggle for independence in ways that feel familiar. The complicated family life is relatable to many teenagers who don’t often get along with their parents. Despite its flaws, the story succeeds at capturing the messy, nonlinear process of rebuilding trust after everything you believed collapses.
Contrasting to the novel, the film provides a reader’s point of view of the environment and emotions within each character and scene differently. The book highlights heavily in emotional reaction with personal adaptation and internal growth. Though fond of the cinematic version, in comparison to the film, readers have raised questions about Hoover’s intentions with the main ideas of both the book and film, and what is being told compared to what is being perceived. Criticism within her storytelling topics, such as trauma and abuse, has triggered more viewers than expected.
Overall, Regretting You meets the success criteria of emotionally grabbing the audience through production. With the film’s falling reaction, in which author Colleen Hoover introduced some specific domestic topics that some found uncomfortable, there is no doubt that, through a visual representation, it reveals the emotional depth within Clara’s life.
