- The latest movie adaptation from popular author Colleen Hoover is Regretting You.
- The story follows a mother and daughter who experience a horrible tragedy that strains their relationship.
- Find out how the new film differs from the 2019 novel.
Fans of Colleen Hoover’s books have another chance to see their favorite—and not so favorite—characters come to life. Following It Ends with Us, the latest book-to-movie adaptation of the author’s work is Regretting You, starring Allison Williams and Mckenna Grace. The pair portray mother and daughter Morgan and Clara Grant, whose lives are rocked when tragedy strikes their family.
Okay, now after that very brief, simple description, let’s get into nitty gritty spoiler territory. The tragedy that Morgan and Clara face is that of a car accident that kills Chris (Scott Eastwood), who is Morgan’s husband and Clara’s father, and Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald), who is Morgan’s sister and Clara’s aunt. Morgan soon finds out that Chris and Jenny were having an affair. She also forms a deeper bond with Jenny’s fiancé and the father of her baby, Jonah (Dave Franco). (Morgan and Chris, and Jonah and Jenny, had all been close friends in high school when both pairs were couples.) Meanwhile, Clara starts a relationship with a classmate, Miller (Mason Thames).
If you read the book, for one, you already know all of this, but for two, you might want to know what is changed in the movie. And really, it’s not that much. Most of the changes have to do with some aspects being explored more in-depth in the book, but there are a couple things that are changed outright, too.
The Location
In the book: Starting with an easy one, the book is set in a non-specific town in Texas, the state where Hoover is from.
In the movie: The movie, on the other hand, is set in North Carolina, and Clara and Miller are accepted to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
The Backstory About Morgan, Chris, Jenny, and Jonah
In the book: The book and the movie both open with Morgan, Chris, Jenny, and Jonah as high schoolers and Morgan finding out that she is pregnant with Chris’ baby. The book takes more time with establishing the relationships between all four of them compared to the movie, including how close Chris and Jonah were. It also includes Morgan and Chris’ wedding and an explanation of how they ended up living in the house he grew up in.
In the movie: The movie does show everyone as their younger selves, but pretty briefly. We see that Jonah and Morgan have more in common than they do with their respective partners, but we don’t actually see anything that happens after Morgan finds out she’s pregnant.
Morgan, Chris, and Clara’s Dynamic
In the book: Similarly, after the flash-forward, the book includes more about the relationship Morgan and Chris have with their teenage daughter, Clara. Chris and Clara are very close, and Morgan and Clara have a more complicated relationship.
In the movie: Clara and Morgan’s relationship isn’t as strained when the movie begins, although we do see that Clara talks to her aunt Jenny about her crush on Miller rather than confiding in her mom.
Jonah and Jenny’s Reunion Story
In the book: One of the bigger changes from the book to the movie is the explanation of what happens with Jonah and Jenny getting back together. In the book, Jonah and Jenny have a one-night stand after she shows up at the funeral of his father. Jenny is already pregnant at that point with Chris’ baby and is using sleeping with Jonah as a coverup, so that he’ll think he’s the dad.
In the movie: The movie implies that Jenny and Jonah got back together quickly and only got engaged because they had a child together, but the paternity situation isn’t presented as being a purposeful deception. Jonah just puts two and two together and sees that his son looks like Chris, with whom he now knows Jenny was having an affair.
The Affair Revelation
In the book: The book takes a longer time with Morgan coming to terms with Jenny and Chris having an affair. She knows that they were together during the car crash, but she also pieces together other evidence. In the book, she tells Clara that Chris and Jenny were together because Chris was helping Jenny with an issue with her car.
In the movie: Jonah tells Morgan almost immediately that Jenny and Chris having an affair is the only explanation for them being together during the car crash, she just doesn’t want to talk about it right away. And while we know that Morgan is keeping the truth a secret from Clara, we don’t really know what Clara thinks is the reason for her dad and aunt dying on the same day. We do know that she thought Jenny was driving, when it was really her dad driving.
The Depth of Lexie and Efren
In the book: The book gives us more backstory about Efren and Lexie. For instance, about how Efren was born in the Philippines.
In the movie: Lexie serves as comic relief when she is on screen, making fun of the awkward situations Clara and her family find themselves in, but she doesn’t get much of her own character development. And while Lexie and Efren do date in the movie, like they do in the book, Efren isn’t featured very much.
Miller and Clara’s Film Competition
In the book: Miller, a film school hopeful, enters a movie competition with Clara at their high school. They show their project to their friends and family together, and at the end of their movie, Miller reveals the promposal movie he made for Clara.
In the movie: The short film competition is mentioned, but we don’t see the movie Miller makes and he doesn’t work on anything with Clara. The promposal is solely a promposal.
The Letters!!!
In the book: Morgan and Jonah find letters that Jenny wrote to Chris. They don’t look at them, and Morgan later destroys them. This upset many readers of the book, who wanted to see what was in those damn letters! How long had this affair been going on?!
In the movie: Sorry, to any book readers who were hoping for a different outcome, but the movie also doesn’t reveal the contents of the letters. It does change how they are destroyed, though: in a post-coital burning session when Morgan and Jonah throw them into a fire while wrapped up in blankets.
Source link