Regretting You (2025) Parents Guide

Regretting You is Rated PG-13 by Motion Picture Rating (MPA) for sexual content, teen drug and alcohol use, and brief strong language.

Regretting You (2025), directed by Josh Boone. As a long-time reader of adaptations of Colleen Hoover’s work, I approached this film with a mixture of hope and caution there’s always the risk of sentimentality slipping into cliché but here the movie manages to land some genuine emotional beats even if it doesn’t always soar.

The Story & What It Tries to Say

The story follows Morgan Grant (played by Allison Williams), a young mother who set aside her own ambitions to raise her teenage daughter, Clara (Mckenna Grace). Their relationship has always been strained Morgan is cautious, structured; Clara rebellious, hungry for independence. Then tragedy strikes: Clara’s father (and Morgan’s husband) is killed in an accident, along with Morgan’s younger sister. Suddenly the foundation beneath both women collapses.

In the aftermath, secrets emerge, feelings are buried, anger simmers, and mother and daughter find themselves adrift not only in grief but in the unfamiliar territory of each other’s emotional lives. The film charts their journey: from alienation and blame, toward bruised but earnest attempts at reconciliation.

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At its heart, Regretting You is about grief and identity how we define ourselves through the people we lose, and how we might rebuild with the people who were always there. It asks: when your role changes (daughter, mother, survivor), can your relationships change too? Do apologies matter more than actions? Do secrets inevitably unravel or can they forge new bonds? And the film succeeds best when it leans into those questions rather than surrendering to melodrama. Of course, there are moments where it does tip into the familiar (“secret revealed!”, “forbidden romance!”, etc.), but the core emotional arc Morgan and Clara trying to trust each other again feels grounded and earnest.

Performances & Characters

Allison Williams gives a quietly strong performance Morgan is not easy to like at first, but Williams manages to make her credible. You can feel the weight of her youth-surrender, of the dreams she shelved, and of the guilt she hides behind composure. Mckenna Grace as Clara is equally compelling: she carries the teenage anger, the hurt, the yearning for more, and at times the petulance that makes her messy and human. The contrast between manager-mom and wild daughter is well drawn.

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Supporting roles add texture Dave Franco shows up as Jonah (a new presence in their lives) with a warmth that helps the film avoid being stifled by grief alone. Mason Thames as Miller (Clara’s boyfriend) brings the spark and the tension you expect in a teen-romance subplot. Some characters are a little under-explored Jenny (Morgan’s late sister) and Chris (the deceased husband/father) feel more like catalysts than fully lived people but that’s a common trade-off in adaptations. Overall: the chemistry, especially between Morgan and Clara, carries the film.

Direction, Visuals & Pacing

Josh Boone brings his literary-adaptation experience (he directed The Fault in Our Stars) to the table here, and his touch shows in the quieter, reflective moments. The cinematography (by Tim Orr) uses light and space well: a funeral scene under grey skies, a mother-daughter confrontation in a sunlit kitchen, the unfamiliarity of home after loss all feel visually distinct.

Pacing is a bit uneven: the first act takes its time establishing Morgan and Clara’s tensions, which is effective, but the middle segment when the secrets begin to unravel stutters a little, piling on revelations.

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The final act picks up again, and leads to an emotional payoff that, while predictable, satisfies. Editing is generally clean; there are a few moments where the film flirts with melodrama a bit naïvely (cue swelling music, lingering glances), but those don’t derail the overall tone. Visually, the film doesn’t go for flashy flourishes there are no big cinematic stunts but that’s actually appropriate: this is a character story, not a spectacle.

Parent Guide & Content Review

Violence: The film’s “violence” is very light: there’s a major accident central to the plot (which triggers the story) and some emotionally charged confrontations. But it’s non-graphic and rarely head-on. No protracted fights, no extreme gore, no horror-style terror. The risk moments are mostly emotional peril grief, secrets revealed, tension between characters. The UK classification notes “moderate sex, drug misuse” and lists “violence” but in the context of grief and disruption rather than sustained physical threats.
Language: The official US rating says “brief strong language”.  The UK classification is more specific: “infrequent strong language (‘f**k’), including bleeped uses; milder terms include ‘bitch’, ‘whore’, ‘asshole’, ‘shit’, ‘Jesus’ and ‘God’.”  So: yes, there is at least one use of the f-word (or its variant) and some harsher insults but they’re not constant, and not the primary feature.
Sexual Content: The UK content advice lays it out: “An older teen has sex with her boyfriend for the first time, but the two stop when she becomes upset. Another sex scene involves a couple shown briefly kissing and caressing in bed, nudity covered by bed sheets. There are also verbal references to virginity, condoms, as well as references to adulterous relationships.”Other parent-guide summaries note that there are “romantic arcs,” “kisses,” and “emotional closeness,” but no reports of explicit sexual detail or nudity heavy scenes.
Substance Use / Drugs: The UK classification: “drug misuse” appears, specifically mentioning “Two older teens share a joint after one of them procures cannabis from a dealer; there are also verbal references to being ‘high’ and ‘stoned’.”

Conclusion:

Regretting You (2025) is generally fine for viewers 15 and up. It’s a PG-13 family drama that deals more in heartbreak than shock value, though it isn’t entirely squeaky clean.