The sap flows strong in ‘Regretting You’

Early on Regretting You pulls you into its tale of tragedy and betrayal By the end though the adaptation of Colleen Hoover s novel all but coats you in sap So Much Sap Helmed by The Fault in Our Stars director Josh Boone and penned by Susan McMartin Mr Church Regretting You is the second big-screen translation of a work by popular and prolific romance novelist Hoover following last year s It Ends With Us much talked about due to the ongoing legal feud between co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni The disappointing Regretting You pedals parallel and often colliding stories of a mother Morgan Allison Williams and her -year-old daughter Clara Mckenna Grace as they try to make sense of their lives following the loss of two family members The tale begins years in the past as Morgan has discovered she s pregnant a fact she hasn t yet advised her boyfriend Chris Scott Eastwood who pressures her to drink as they hang out with her sister Jenny Willa Fitzgerald and her beau Jonah Dave Franco Morgan does however confide in Jonah who s obviously in love with her In the present day Chris and Morgan are husband and wife and raising good apprentice Clara while Jonah after years away is back with Jenny The pair have a baby boy and are talking about marriage And then it happens Co-workers Chris and Jenny die in a car accident on what was noted to be her first day back to work following maternity leave Only it turns out she wasn t yet scheduled to be back on the job And why was Chris driving Jenny s car at the time of the crash We know why and so do Morgan and Jonah Allison Williams and Dave Franco share a scene in Regretting You Courtesy of Paramount Pictures Morgan insists this information be kept from Clara who was close not just with her father but also her aunt who was a confidante Jonah a high school guide who counts Clara among his students doesn t seem to agree but goes along with Morgan s wishes Soon Morgan struggles to connect with her daughter as they continue to live in Chris childhood home where Morgan finds herself surrounded by his things Meanwhile Jonah who continues to hold strong feelings for Morgan realizes the full ramifications of Jenny s infidelity On the other hand things could be worse for Clara who is growing close to her crush at school Miller Mason Thames who suddenly is urgent up and getting back together with his girlfriend on the regular Once that relationship is put to bed the two spend a lot of time together adding to her mother s list of concerns For much of its two hours Regretting You traffics in mother-daughter shouting matches and cute teenage love The movie spends so much time with Clara and Miller with Grace and Thames progressing nice chemistry that it devotes too little attention to Morgan and Jonah That s especially disappointing considering that Franco Jump Street The Studio known largely for comedic roles gives the movie s best performance Also more could have been made of the efforts of Morgan a stay-at-home-mom with a gift for design to remake a home that never felt like hers Allison Williams stars in Regretting You Courtesy of Paramount Pictures Williams Get Out M GAN gives a decent performance delivering laughs during a rare comic scene where Morgan stares down Miller after he takes the emotional Clara away from her father s funeral and facilitates her desire to try smoking marijuana Thames How to Train Your Dragon Black Phone is enjoyable too as Miller who s not the bad boy he first seems and who cares for his ailing grandfather Clancy Brown The Shawshank Redemption Mason Thames Miller and McKenna Grace s Clara move a sign in the hopes that a pizza place will deliver to his grandfather s home in a scene from Regretting You Courtesy of Paramount Pictures Grace The Handmaid s Tale Captain Marvel meanwhile is fine but not nearly as fascinating as she is in the current Ghostbusters movies as Phoebe Spengler Perhaps the book is different but the movie version of this story has nowhere intriguing to go and you can tell that by about the halfway point when checking your watch starts to become a regular occurrence If you love schmaltzy paper-thin romances and that s your right there likely will be no regrets after seeing Regretting You The rest of us though will be left wanting something more than all that sap Regretting You contains sexual content teen drug and alcohol use and brief strong language REGRETTING YOU Rated PG- At the AMC Boston Common Causeway South Bay Center Alamo Drafthouse Seaport and suburban theaters Grade C