It’s the 2021-2022 school year, and everyone and their mom is reading It Ends With Us. Whether you’re on booktok or not, the name Colleen Hoover lives rent free on everyone’s fyp. Anytime you ask a friend how they like the novel, all they can do is sing its praises then beg you to read it.
Fast-forward to August of 2024, when Hoover’s break-through novel finally debuted on the big screen after its announcement in 2019. Within that time, It Ends With Us always managed to stay relevant, so readers were definitely excited for the film.
With a budget of $25 million, the movie grossed $100 million globally within the first week. Despite this, viewers walked out of theaters with mixed emotions.
Critics thought it was mid. Some readers thought it was the movie of the year. Other readers hated it.
But what about those of us who didn’t read the book?
If you’re like me, you saw the movie but never got around to reading everyone’s favorite book of the early 2020s, or maybe you aren’t a big reader in general.
Sony Pictures’ It Ends With Us was directed by Justin Baldoni and is based off Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel. The drama follows Lily Blossom Bloom as she moves to Boston after her abusive father’s death. She pursues her lifelong dream of opening a flower shop (how ironic) and meets Ryle Kincaid, a charming neurosurgeon who stubbornly chases her after being repeatedly friend-zoned.
He eventually wins her over and they end up in a “happy” relationship. What started out as a quirky meet-cute, slowly turns into a dark drama when Lily’s first love Atlas Corrigan re-enters her life.
Lily realizes that her own relationship with Ryle resembles that of her parents, and despite her best efforts, Lily ended up in the same abusive relationship as her mother. She ends it with Ryle, only after she finds out that she’s pregnant.
The movie concludes with Lily promising her daughter that she won’t grow up around abuse, or experience domestic violence, and that, “it ends with us.” There’s a cliffhanger ending, where Lily and Atlas reconnect with both of them newly single.
A major complaint with the film are the flashbacks. Audiences were confused on whether a scene was the past or the present. But in my opinion, the director successfully clarified the timeline with the distinct sets and a yellowish filter over the flashed back scenes.
My main gripe with the It Ends With Us movie is how it failed to emphasize the seriousness of abusive relationships. Apart from the emotional manipulation, Ryle gave Lily a black eye, cut her head, pushed her down the stairs, and attempted to rape her. And yet, Lily never went to the police. The film never offered any reason for this. This just encourages victims of assault to not press charges or get any justification for the crimes against them.
Many people online didn’t like the casting. In the book, Lily is 23 years old, While Blake Lively (who played her in the movie) is 37. I understand why Colleen Hoover had a young protagonist, but having an older actor shows that people can be unaware of their abusive relationship at any age, and that childhood trauma can affect people for their entire lives.
Also, Blake Lively was marketing the film as a cute rom-com that would be the movie of the summer, like she was trying to be the Barbie of 2024. Along with the cutesy florals of the movie poster and promos, the marketing was overall misleading for a film about domestic violence.
On the other hand, I thought the acting was great. The sets were beautiful. I appreciated how Lily’s colorful, vintage-esque, and maximalistic store starkly opposes Ryle’s modern apartment. This visually alluded to the fact that Lily and Ryle don’t belong together. Also, toward the end of the movie when Lily stays with Atlas, we see that his apartment better matches her aesthetic.
Overall, from someone who didn’t read It Ends With Us or its sequel, It Starts With Us, the movie was a good experience. I just wish they had better handled the dark subject matter.
