{"id":534719,"date":"2026-03-12T03:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/534719\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T03:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:55:10","slug":"daniel-day-lewis-in-anemone-and-colleen-hoovers-new-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/534719\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Day-Lewis in Anemone and Colleen Hoover\u2019s new film"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MaikaMaika Monroe and Tyriq Withers on their way to the inevitable happy ending.
\nAP<\/p>\n

Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe) has just returned after seven years in prison on charges involving the car accident that killed her fianc\u00e9, Scotty. She\u2019s hoping to make peace with his parents, who blame her for the crash. And she desperately wants to see the baby born to her while she was serving her sentence. Scotty was the father and his parents have been awarded custody.<\/p>\n

Hoover co-wrote the script, which unfolds at a pace designed to make the most of every plot point. It also preserves the interior monologue that formed part of the novel\u2019s narration by giving Kenna a hefty journal that she totes around in a backpack, guarding it so zealously it might well be a detachable body part.<\/p>\n

She discovers the bar on her first night, dropping in against her better judgment because it\u2019s on the site of what used to be her favourite bookshop, and as soon as she and the bar\u2019s sexy manager, Ledger (Tyriq Withers), make eye contact it\u2019s clear romance is in the air.<\/p>\n

Next come the obstacles \u2013 methodically lined up in Hoover\u2019s customary manner, to delay the inevitable happy ending. And the first one is seemingly insurmountable. It\u2019s only when Kenna hears Ledger\u2019s name that she identifies him as her dead fiance\u2019s best friend. They did not meet when she and Scotty were together because Ledger was away from home, pursuing his career as a professional footballer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s back, living across the street from Scotty\u2019s parents, Grace (Lauren Graham) and Patrick (Bradley Whitford), and performing the role of a surrogate father to Kenna\u2019s young daughter, Diem (Zoe Kosovic). And when he discovers who Kenna is, he does everything he can to stop her seeing Diem and upsetting her tranquil existence.<\/p>\n

The last Hoover adaptation, Regretting You<\/a>, was a flop because it failed to distil Hoover\u2019s convoluted plot into an emotional cocktail potent enough to justify its weepy finish. This one, which is also out to inspire tears, has a better chance.<\/p>\n

When first introduced, Kenna is less than engaging. She has a petulant, driven air that doesn\u2019t invite empathy but as the odds against her increase and she starts forming friendships with her neighbours and workmates, some of whom are also down on their luck, Monroe\u2019s performance becomes more relaxed and sympathetic.<\/p>\n

Even so, the clich\u00e9s are abundant and in the end, the film offers little to entice you to leave streaming behind for a night at the cinema.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maika Monroe and Tyriq Withers on their way to the inevitable happy ending. AP Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,344],"class_list":["post-534719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}