As Blake Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, continues to crush the summer box office with Deadpool & Wolverine, she hopes to capture a different genre of audience with the drama-romance movie It Ends With Us. Based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Colleen Hoover, It Ends With Us follows Lily Bloom (Blake Lively)—with hopes of opening her own flower shop in Boston. This one had audiences laughing, wooing (for those wet, steamy, supercut male abs) and sobbing throughout the whole screening.
The main gripe before heading to see this film adaptation was that the characters had to be aged up. Regardless, the main story had a good translation to film. Lily overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. A chance meeting with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) sparks a connection, but Lily begins to see sides of him that remind her of her parents’ relationship. When Lily’s first love, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), suddenly reenters her life, her relationship with Ryle is upended, and Lily realizes she must learn to rely on her strength to make an impossible choice for her future.
Just by comparing the opening scene that covered chapter one of the book, the dialogue was noticeably improved in this adaptation. The novel had a lot of cringy dialogue but was probably more realistic, with Baldoni in the director’s chair and Christy Hall’s screenplay as well. The overall story had some gut-punching twists and turns, probably due to the fact that it was relatable to a lot of family and spousal relationships that have dealt with some kind of abuse or assault.
“It Ends With Us was a perfect example of do’s and unacceptables in a modern relationship.”
By the end of the film, the message is clear that Lily is independent enough to deal with the consequences of her actions and the actions against her. The only ambiguous part of the film was how it took a stance on the whole pro-life versus pro-choice debate without ever actually addressing the issue overtly. I’m not sure if this was intentional.
Another factor that helped deliver a solid romance-drama performance came from Lively, who delivered her lines as naturally as the flirty conversations could have gone for her character. Lively and Baldoni had great chemistry, but so did Isabela Ferrer’s young Lily and Alex Neustaedter’s young Atlus. Ferrer was scarily identical to Lively, and she nailed Lively’s mannerisms and general tone as Lily. The casting department deserves major kudos for the onscreen chemistry for almost everyone.
Arguably, the best onscreen chemistry in It Ends With Us was between Ryle’s sister, Allysa (Jenny Slate) and her husband, Marshall (Hasan Minhaj). They were the perfect comedy relief against the three main characters, who were more serious. Slate stole the show as the most lovable character, as Allysa became closer to Lily than to her brother.
“The dialogue was noticeably improved in this adaptation, compared to the cringy lines in the novel.”
In terms of the set production, the flower arrangements in Lily’s shop were aesthetically pleasing. A lot of the movie took place in Ryle’s penthouse, which looked exactly what most people would envision a neurosurgeon living in—everything was pristine and minimalist. It served a better contrast to Atlus’ home, which was more rustic and homely—it had portraits of fish and a more wooden look.
The costume department also deserved some props for their choice to make Lily wear various Carhartt coveralls throughout It Ends With Us. It almost seemed unnecessary but made more sense knowing that Lily is a florist and kind of matches the gardener vibes. Strangely enough, there was a stunt team on this, probably for the one fight that occurred. However, the camera shied away from showing the punches land. It was unclear why the fight was cut this way, but maybe it was a way to tone it down or make it less prominent for a deeper purpose.
It Ends With Us left a hopeful message for viewers who may have gone through the trauma Lily went through. Lily’s speech near the end was heartwarming and inspirational. It was a little cheesy but hit hard. With a 2-hour and 10-minute runtime, the pacing was well done—keeping the tension super tight. For those who like Hallmark films, this was like a 14+ or 18+ version of one of those styles of romance movies. This was nothing like the earlier summer rom-com hit Anyone But You. It Ends With Us was a perfect example of do’s and unacceptables in a modern relationship.
