Regretting You

Ah, high school. A time of growth, a time to find your niche, and most importantly a time to find your better half. Take Morgan for example. She and her boyfriend, Chris, are celebrating the summer with their friends, Jenny and Jonah, who are also a couple. The four have been inseparable since the beginning. While Jenny and Chris decide to go over and dance near the DJ, Morgan informs Jonah that she’s pregnant and that the child is Chris’.

Flash-forward 17 years, Morgan (Allison Williams) is married to Chris (Scott Eastwood) and they have a wonderful 16 (soon to be 17) year old daughter, Clara (Mckenna Grace). Over the years, Morgan has become very over protective of her, especially when it comes to her hanging out with a local boy named Miller (Mason Thames). She wants to hold on to Clara for as long as she can, but Clara wants to fall in love and get into the drama school of her dreams.

After Clara, Chris and Morgan have a visit with Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald) and Jonah (Dave Franco), Jenny and Chris tell Jonah and Clara they have to get to work, with Chris mentioning that he has a “staff meeting” to attend. Several hours later there is a call. A call no one wishes to hear. Chris and Jenny were both in the car and got into an accident, dying shortly after.

Morgan’s life is flipped completely upside down when she discovers that Chris and Jenny were having an affair behind Morgan and Jonah’s back for many months.

The problem here is how is Morgan suppose to tell Clara that her father died as a cheater? “Clara looked up to her father, worshiped him. This will destroy her. Jonah we both have to swear never to tell Clara. She’s been through enough.” Jonah hesitantly agrees.

But you see, the truth always finds a way to get out, and nobody is ready for this kind of fall out.

“Regretting You” is a mix of everything: emotional, heartwarming, humorous, but also incredibly frustrating. The premise of “I married the wrong person, I secretly love you more” is a predictable and frankly overly used narrative in every Romance movie. Think of your favorite Hallmark movie, now think about “Regretting You” except this movie seems much longer than its actual runtime (which is roughly 2 hours and a little extra). If I’m really being honest the whole “caught in a secret affair” narrative has gotten old. Perhaps that’s the point of a rom-com, redundancy. If a formula works, why fix it?

The thing is, while “Regretting You” has a couple good messages about grief and making sense of the nonsensible, this “heartwarming” and “emotionally driven” story is really a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Stop for a second and think about the entire premise of the film: Two married individuals with families (one with a newborn boy, by the way) secretly cheat on their spouses by having sex at a hotel for months because they “married the wrong people” (their words, not mine). Is that something we need to glorify? Is that something our young boys and girls need to learn, to dishonor the sanctity of marriage no matter the cost?

In the beginning, when Morgan finds out about the affair, she’s devastated and doesn’t want to deal with reality. Throughout the film though, she is seen engaging in behaviors that are unbecoming of any human being: massive amounts of drinking, lying, and being verbally abusive. When she and Clara butt heads, she isn’t the bigger person, she reaches down to Clara’s level and becomes sarcastic, rude and dismissive.

That’s not to say Clara is a saint either. She sneaks out of the house multiple times, gets in cars with boys without telling her mom, she’s incredibly disrespectful to her mother and even USES her supposed boyfriend for sex to get back at her mom (who kisses Jonah only a week or two after Chris’ death by the way) and then tries to defend her actions to the boy she hurt. Then, to make matters worse, he runs back to Clara as if nothing even happened.

I’m sorry, but from a moral and Christian standpoint, the message of this film is “having affairs are okay as long as their with people who are your real soul-mates.” Hold it, the Bible doesn’t give anyone permission to cheat on their spouse, not ONE reason. In fact, Jesus states the marriage is a sacred covenant made between two people and ordained, blessed by God Almighty, as the couple are not only vowing to be with each other until death, but are promising God that they will honor and love each other, no matter what.

In Matthew 19:6, Jesus states that when two join together in marriage, “the two become one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” Those who are married are encouraged by God Himself to practice the fruits of the spirit, as this leads to a strong marriage, in which the strength comes from not each other, but from God: In Galatians 5:22-23 it states,

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law.”

Apart from that, the story itself is just weak. There were times I looked at the screen and said “Yep, saw that coming.” The dialog itself is okay in some moments and then in others where it felt like it came from a really bad sitcom or at the very least, very clichéd.

I will state, however, Mckenna Grace and Allison Williams give their absolute best to their respective roles. It was a shame that Clancy Brown was utilized in such a suppressed role as Miller’s grandfather, as honestly, he had some of the best lines and some great moments in the film.

The music also really supports and strengthens the film, especially in moments where things really become sluggish. Still, the content is a massive concern, especially when this film contains very heavy amounts of sexual content and dialog as well as scenes which include drugs and heavy drinking.

Content of Concern

SEXUAL CONTENT/DIALOG: Very Heavy. A boy asks a girl if she wants to rifle through his pockets (aka play with his genitals. By the way, this is a teenage boy who asks this teenage girl he just met. Clara brags to her Aunt Jenny how she spent the last ½ hour in a room with a boy (Jenny puts her on speakerphone so Morgan can here). An underage teenage girl brags about changing her age to 18 for Tinder. Someone mentions that “just because they’re a bully doesn’t mean you can’t score.” Clara’s friend, Lexi, mentions that they’re “all sorts of rides.” A young couple share a couple kisses. Jonah mentions that there’s a possibly that his son is not actually his son, and that Clara and his son, Eli, are actually half siblings (this isn’t pursued much further than this comment).

Young Morgan and Young Jonah (from 17 years prior) are swimming in a giant pool and grasp onto each other with their legs, this leads to the two realizing that they should be with each other, not the people they’re currently with. Clara informs Jonah she’s a virgin. Morgan and Jonah kiss, as do Clara and Miller. A girl grabs a pregnancy test.

Two adult characters have passionate sex with each other (the male is shirtless). We later see Clara and Miller passionately make out and eventually have sex. At Clara’s very uncomfortable birthday party, having discovered Morgan and Jonah kissing, she makes some very nasty, sexualized comments towards her mother such as “At least we know my mother is great with a tool” and “We never finished making our short film, Mom. Miller and I were too busy having sex.” Someone mentions sleeping with someone during a funeral.

NUDITY: In the sex scenes, all of the characters are partially nude, with one teenage girl being seen in nothing but her bra and panties. Clara is seen wearing a couple really short skirts. A male character is swimming shirtless, and Clara is seen in nothing but a towel before Miller shows up (shot from the shoulders up). Two adult characters that have sex with each other are seen later sitting in front of the fireplace covered by only blankets (we still see some skin).

DRUGS: Clara mentions, during the funeral, that she doesn’t want to be there and tells Miller she’d rather get high. So Miller helps her acquire some pot to try, but Clara ends up hating it (she is later reprimanded by Morgan). Miller’s grandpa used to sell illegal drugs and went to jail for several years because of it.

ALCOHOL: 17 year olds are seen underage drinking at a party. Morgan is shown drinking a massive amount of wine after learning of the affair. Clara tries drinking an entire bottle of wine (but she vomits shortly thereafter).

VULGAR LANGUAGE: F*ck (1), F*cking (1), F*ck (bleeped out during a TV show) (4), a rude gesture (1), Sh*t (8), Horse Sh*t (1), Wh*re (1), B*tch (2), A**-hole (1)

PROFANITY: J*sus (3), Jeez (1), G*d (1), Oh my G*d (2), D*mn it (2), H*ll (4), What the H*ll (2)

There’s a story about Miller pooping his pants when he was younger. Morgan cruelly says to Clara that Miller is a not a guy worth giving up her life for (even though she’s never met the boy before this). She also tells her friend Jonah, “You don’t know what its like to put someone before yourself,” which is 100 percent not true.

VIOLENCE: Someone makes a joke about burying bodies. Two people die in a car accident. Morgan takes her bag and pounds on her deceased husband’s car, destroying parts of it. She later karate kicks and destroys a swinging kitchen door she despises. We briefly glimpse a moment from “Friday the 13th” on a TV where Jason grabs a kid through the window.

OTHER: As I stated, Clara is downright disrespectful and rude to her mother after her father dies. She lies, runs away, drinks, smokes pot, and outwardly defies her mother when she tells Clara she cannot date Miller. Morgan is not the best role model either. She drinks excessively and lies to Clara and encourages Jonah to lie as well. As a running joke, Dylan is seen breaking the law by moving a city limit to allow his grandfather to have his favorite pizza delivered to his home which is located outside of the city. There are movie posters on Miller’s wall and a couple of them are from “Pet Sematary” and “Silence of the Lambs.”

Final Thoughts

“Regretting You” is a C+, typical Rom-Com/Drama. The saying “nothing is new under the sun” rings ever so true with “Regretting You.” Between the sexual dialog and content, nudity, drugs, alcohol, language, I REGRET seeing “Regretting You.” Mckenna Grace is a strong up and coming actress, but I do hope she chooses better, less morally problematic films (or at the least try hard not to be typecast into either background roles or roles where she has to have a nasty attitude, as she was in the series “Young Sheldon”).

Stay away from this film. If you’re like me, you’ll likely have to wash your ears out from all the disgusting dialog on screen. This film does nothing to edify followers of Christ or strengthen their walk with Christ. In short, you can do much better than “Regretting You.”

• Sex: Very Heavy
• Vulgar/Crude language: Moderately Heavy
• Profane language: Moderately Heavy
• Nudity: Moderate
• Drugs/Alcohol: Moderate
• Violence: Mild
• Wokeism: Mild
• Occult: None

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.