It Ends With Us: Good Movie, Not on a First Date Though.
I’ve never read a Colleen Hoover novel, although to be fair I don’t think I’m her target
demographic. So when I went to see It Ends With Us, the new film starring Blake Lively that is
based off the book by the same title, I was going in fresh. I didn’t know anything about this story
before watching, and I’ll tell you…It Ends With Us is a roller coaster of emotions. Actually, roller
coasters have ups and downs so I think a better comparison would be the Tower of Terror where
it’s up once and then one hard descent.
It Ends With Us is directed by Justin Baldoni (Who also stars in the film as Ryle), and the film
follows Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) as she starts a new chapter of her life while overcoming a
traumatic and abusive relationship with her father. Her father has passed before the beginning
of the film, so the only scenes we see him are in flashbacks. After Lily Bloom opens up a flower
shop in Boston (Hilarious, I know), she falls in love with a neurosurgeon named Ryle and begins
a relationship with him. However, she begins to see sides of Ryle that remind her of her parent’s
abusive relationship. After a man from her past named Atlas (Brendon Skelner) reenters her life,
things quickly spiral downward. Lily must then find the strength to overcome her trauma and
move forward.
The first half of this film is lighthearted and operates as a standard romcom. The cast is fun and
attractive, Jenny Slate and Hassan Minhaj play a couple who are friends with Lily. I enjoyed
watching their relationship progress in the background, and both have moments that are
genuinely funny. Most of the film takes place in downtown Boston, where the nights have vibrant
and slightly seductive lighting, and the days have rays of sunshine pouring through the windows.
Even though we don’t get to explore Boston or get to experience any of Boston’s character, the
set pieces look very good. Baldoni and Lively have a weird chemistry that is romantic and
seductive on the surface but feels off if you inspect it closer. That’s purposeful though, as that is
what both characters are going for and I think they pull it off.
Once Ryle’s true character is revealed though, the movie turns dark fast. And I mean fast, to the
point where it’s kind of disorienting and you think you are in a completely different movie. I am
by no means an expert on domestic abuse, so I’m not going to even try to unpack those themes
here. I do like how the movie wrongfoots the audience though. After Ryle’s character reveal, the
film plays back earlier scenes but in a different, much darker tone. So when the audience was
shown the scenes the first time, they are supposed to depict them from Lily’s point of view.
However, the replays though show the audience what actually happened. That’s pretty clever,
and there is a lot in that decision you can unpack about how victims of domestic abuse perceive
traumatic events. Again, I’m not an expert so I don’t feel comfortable trying to unpack but it was
interesting decision from a filmmaking perspective.
There are signs early in the film that foreshadow Lily and Ryle’s relationship, for example when
they first meet Ryle kicks a chair. Given that he was a neurosurgeon, I assumed it had
something to do with his job, so I didn’t think that was a sign of where the film was going. He
also flirts pretty aggressively with Lily and is persistent early on, but the way it’s filmed makes it
feel more romanticized, so the red flags are more subtle. Once the film turns though, you
recognize those red flags from earlier immediately.
It Ends With Us has a good cast and solid filmmaking about a story that has a very sensitive subject. The performances feel earnest, the dialogue and blocking come off more like descriptions in a novel than natural but it’s charming. It wrongfoots the audience in a way that makes the first part of the film feel like it’s romanticizing Lily and Ryle’s relationship. However, given where the film ends up and what we learn about Ryle I think it’s a bit more complicated than that. But it did evoke some different emotions in me, so overall I think the movie was successful. Word of advice: I wouldn’t take someone on a first
date to this movie though, just see Deadpool.
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