Blake Lively stars in this very basic love story that feels very lacking in the human element and just wants to be trauma porn.
PLOT: Adapted from the Colleen Hoover novel, Lily overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. A chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection but Lily begins to see sides of him that remind her of her parents’ relationship.
REVIEW: It’s always a tough job adapting any book into a feature-length film. Most book narratives aren’t structured in the same way a movie is, so the pacing can sometimes suffer. Scenes that may break the flow of the film, may be considered vital to book fans. I have no prior experience with Colleen Hoover’s novel, but I understand its popularity. It Ends With Us is as much about romance as it is about stewing in trauma. And because of this desire to be a rom-com at points, the deeper message is lost in the process.
It Ends With Us follows Lily Bloom as she moves to Boston to open up her flower shop. She meets a handsome young doctor (Baldoni) but doesn’t want to get into a relationship. What follows is a mix of narratives that ultimately just want to make one point, and it doesn’t seem to matter its path to get there. There are moments from Lily’s past interspersed, where they give context to her father’s abuse as well as her first real relationship. They feel like they belong in two entirely different films and completely clash in tone.
And yes, I’m sure book fans will claim the unevenness completely necessary but, as a cinematic narrative, it falls flat. I could see this story working in the more drawn-out book form. But as is, I felt like it took away from the events and was constantly making it obvious how it would play out. Blake Lively is affable enough as Lily Bloom and has her trademark charisma. I also really enjoyed Isabela Ferrer as the younger Lily as she looked and sounded exactly like Lively. But the character of Lily is really bland. She feels like a walking contradiction, whether she’s teasing a man for sex or bumbling around rather than just using her words to communicate.
The biggest issue that I had with It Ends With Us is that the abuse feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy. None of it comes across naturally, and mostly just feels like the writer wants to end on a certain note. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the end scene inspired the entire book. The journey of getting there doesn’t really work for me. They try to make the husband out to be this awful human and then the weirdo stalker is the actual hero. It’s the kind of thing that always happens in these love stories that makes me cringe.
Whether it’s the beautiful flower shop or the absurdly attractive cast, the film is always making the most of its visuals. Since I wasn’t at all invested in the story, it was nice to have nice things to look at. The city of Boston is practically another character here. Good chemistry exists between all of the love interests, and the meet-cutes are entertaining. And while all the performances are decent, they’re attached to such caricatures of human beings that only exist to prove a stereotypical point in the story. I don’t know how much of the blame can be put on the book but I disliked nearly every person involved.
I found It Ends With Us to be a very frustrating experience. Lily is a very one-dimensional character whose sole purpose is to be a victim. Whether it’s her consistently leaving out vital information that could make the situation less volatile, to her apathy towards anything that’s not her high school ex, I had a hard time sympathizing. The narrative consistently feels like something out of a bad romance novel. The performances and chemistry will assuredly earn it a decent box office, but as a quality film: look elsewhere.
IT ENDS WITH US IS PLAYING IN THEATERS ON AUGUST 9TH, 2024.
