Colleen Hoover’s new film adaptation has arrived. Here
The film adaptation of romance queen Colleen Hoover’s Regretting You is out now, and overall it’s a fairly faithful adaptation of the book.
The film’s star-studded cast includes Allison Williams, Dave Franco, Mckenna Grace and Mason Thames, who do a great job bringing Morgan, Jonah, Cara and Miller to life. The film even often pulls many dialogues directly from the book.
Of course, there are some differences, as the movie skips much of the book’s plot and exposition. These are the biggest differences between the book and the movie Lamenting You. (Warning: spoilers ahead!)
The movie is set in a fictional town called Dylan, North Carolina, while the book is set in Texas.
In the film, Morgan tells Jonah that she is pregnant in one of the first scenes, right after finding out. Meanwhile, the book begins with Morgan discovering that she is pregnant, but doesn’t tell Jonah until later.
The beginning of the film also leaves out much of Morgan’s backstory and inner world, so we don’t learn much about her old feelings for Jonah or her problems with Chris.
Jenny puts Clara on speakerphone in front of her mother in the movie, so her mother will hear about Miller Adams that way. In the book, Jenny at least leaves to take Clara’s call.
The movie also doesn’t show how close Morgan and Jenny were, while their bond is a big part of the book.
In the book, it is implied that Jenny was already pregnant with Chris’s baby when she went to sleep with Jonah at his father’s funeral.
The movie implies that Jenny didn’t know she was pregnant when she slept with Jonah.
In the book, Miller and Clara spend a lot of time working on their film project, but the movie skips that plot entirely.
Morgan attacks Chris’ car and kicks in the kitchen door in the film right after discovering that he and Jenny were having an affair.
In the book, she simply leaves Chris’ car at the hotel and the kitchen door no longer works.
In the movie, Morgan’s TV works, but it’s not in the book, and he spends a lot more time trying to fix his TV so he can watch Bravo.
Morgan also drinks a lot more wine in the movie than in the book.
There is much more emphasis on the pain and inner worlds of the characters in the book. Clara is more concerned about how her father’s infidelity could affect her relationships.
The movie swaps Starbucks for a coffee shop called Refuge.
In the book, Clara starts drinking coffee at Starbucks and has her first date with Miller there. In the movie, they trade Starbucks for a coffee shop called Refuge. Maybe Starbucks didn’t want the free PR?
In the film, Jonah plays a song that causes Morgan to have a flashback to a moment they shared together in a pool.
There is no flashback moment of the song in the book.
Morgan seems to like interior design in the film and is seen working on sketches several times. In the book, Morgan doesn’t really seem to have a passion, although at the end she begins to feel excited about finding one.
In the book, she also becomes more concerned about money and applies for a job as a substitute teacher.
Clara and Miller watch Clueless on their date, which doesn’t happen in the book. The film also invents “horror movie nights at Refuge”, possibly a nod to the horror film careers of Mckenna Grace and Mason Thames?
Morgan doesn’t seem to forget Clara’s birthday in the movie, but he definitely does in the book.
Clara also goes to the cemetery on her birthday in the movie on her birthday, which does not happen in the book.
In the book, Miller and Clara spend a lot of time together working on a movie about hating the color orange, which they watch at the end, and then he surprises Clara with a home movie showing the first time he saw it and ending with a prom proposal.
The film skips the entire collaborative movie plot and ends with Miller surprising Clara with his prom proposal film.
Clara enters college in the film and lands the lead role in her school play, but neither of these things happen in the book, and there is more tension between Clara and Morgan over Clara’s acting dreams in the book than in the film overall.
The film also adds an additional scene at the end where Morgan supports Clara’s acting dreams and the two reconcile.
Overall, the characters in the movie seem to go through much less emotional conflict than the characters in the book. The book does a good job of showing how pain and infidelity strain the relationships between all the characters and subject them to various crises.
But the film places more emphasis on the romance and less emphasis on the pain and emotional impact of Chris and Jenny’s affair.