The first feature adaptation of a novel by author Colleen Hoover, It Ends With Us, is hitting the screen this weekend in what is expected to be a major crowd pleaser for her legion of female fans. The movie, aptly in the hands of Jane the Virgin actor-turned-Five Feet Apart filmmaker Justin Baldoni, who also stars here, captures the emotional complexities of relationships mired in domestic abuse and why women decide to stay — or not.
Similar to how Baldoni was able to capture the fragile romanticism between a young couple stricken with chronic diseases in 2019’s $93 million-grossing Five Feet Apart, the director, together with screenwriter Christy Hall, is able to lift the particulars of passions that are damaged and toxic off the pages and onto a bigger canvas, while stepping into the headspace of many women who’ve experienced plights such as Lily Bloom’s, portrayed by Blake Lively in what is one of the Gossip Girl alum’s most serious performances.
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What Baldoni gets right, just like the novel, is relaying a tale of how many relationships that begin with the utmost love can unfortunately sour. What fans of the book will immediately notice is Baldoni’s deft touch in handling some of the more violent scenes on the page with a certain politeness — until the end, when Lily fully experiences a rude awakening. In addition, Hall’s screenplay largely sticks to the original dialogue in Hoover’s novel.
As streamers have cannibalized once prime box office genres, Sony has made it a mission to revitalize such features, in this case a romance drama, one which we’ve haven’t seen in quite some time. Delivering here a polished adaptation by an immensely popular author and novel, Sony and Wayfarer Studios, both of which co-financed, have a big opening weekend in store, some box office sources believing that a $40M-plus opening for It Ends With Us isn’t out of the range of possibility.
The novel was optioned in 2019 by Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, who worked with Hoover extensively on the feature version; the author also is serving as EP. The layered love story is loosely based on Hoover’s mother: Lily Bloom falls for neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni), whose volatile nature leads to unforgivable violence toward her before and after they get married.
Should readership have any qualms with this mostly spot-on transformation, their reservations may be with some additional quirky comedic moments from Ryle’s sister Allysa (played by Saturday Night Live vet Jenny Slate). In addition, there are some lines by Lily when she first meets Ryle that don’t exactly hit. References come across a little disjointed as the characters were aged up from Hoover’s novel. Ryle’s absence may also be felt in a scene that discloses a tragic event in his past.
A chance rooftop meeting between Lily and Ryle — which forecasts more about Baldoni’s leading man than women might take in at first watch — sets up their reconnection a few months later after Lily achieves her childhood dream of opening a flower shop. When she gets the keys to her Bostonian building, who should walk in to volunteer and help but Allysa. Begging for work because she is bored and married to a well-off entrepreneur Marshall (Hasan Minhaj), Allysa promptly commits to helping Lily out down to cleaning out the building. Closer to opening the shop, who should walk in with Allysa’s husband to help hoist decorations but her neurosurgeon brother, and this rekindles the spark between Ryle and Lily.
Flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years set up the story of her first love, Atlas Corrigan (Alex Neustadter), who resurfaces when Lily meets her mom for dinner at Root, a restaurant that the grownup Atlas (Brandon Sklenar) now owns. This marks one scene slightly tweaked from the book in which Lily recognizes Atlas by a familiar scar on his hand on-screen versus first looking him in the eye in the book. Root’s décor and overall atmosphere subtly connects Atlas and Lily because it echoes how Lily decorated her childhood bedroom, and now her flower shop.
Ryle’s latent volatility shows itself in three separate scenarios, and Baldoni as a director plays the first two out in a fast-paced nature, while the third sequence includes a fuller, more grave reveal, one in which Lily has more clarity. Readers are well acquainted with these moments, and might be thrown by how they’re portrayed in speedy multiple angles and quick cuts before they see the final flashback. However, Baldoni’s style here is to capture the mentality of a woman who has been abused, and who often times tries to rationalize such tragedy. The story plays very well to that angle.
The first instance entails Ryle leaving a frittata in the oven too long for breakfast. As he goes to grab it in a rush barehanded, Lily goes from laughing to sprawled on the floor; put there by surprise force. The sequence disorients the viewer, making it look like Ryle’s flinching reaction to the heat turned into a push that put Lily on the floor.
Confrontations by Atlas of both Lily and Ryle sets up another act of violence, which plays out in similar filmed fashion to the first. These first instances of Ryle’s violence will have the viewer questioning what really happened at first, like Lily does. In between the first and second altercations, Lily marries Ryle.
The third instance of abuse marks a turning point as the other moments get more clarity from the slowed playback in Lily’s mind where Ryle’s actions are made glaringly obvious. In addition to this directorial vision, Baldoni brings humanity and emotion to a character with unforgivable behavior.
As Lily, Lively balances empathy and assertion. Her grace and calmness give way to quiet resolve as Lily faces down her and Ryle’s demons. Lively still sparkles with a hopeful joy in between the serious scenes, which lays the foundation for her convincing resilience.
Sklenar takes on the stoic nature of Atlas with ease. On the surface, his blue eyes and breezy nature contrast with Ryle’s intensity, but Sklenar as Atlas can meet Ryle’s anger with his own fierce protection of Lily.
Complicated relationships are a theme throughout Hoover’s work. Amazon MGM is turning her book Verity into a thriller. Given the clean and hopeful ending in which Lily has come to terms with herself and her choices, some fans may clamor for another installment between Lily and Atlas. There could very well be one in Hoover’s It Starts With Us, the 2022 sequel, which watches Atlas and Lily get a second chance at a relationship after she’s had time to adjust to her next chapter. This installment, though, stays powerful with the choice to keep Lily independent at its conclusion.
Title: It Ends With Us
Distributor: Sony
Release Date: August 9, 2024
Director: Justin Baldoni
Screenwriter: Christy Hall
Cast: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Brandon Sklenar, Isabela Ferrer, Alex Neustadter, Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj, Kevin McKidd, Amy Morton
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 2 hr 10 min