It Ends With Us: Did the Film Deserve the One Star Ratings?

The movie “It Ends With Us”, is a romance movie adapted from the book by Colleen Hoover. It was released in theaters on Aug 9. The film was presented as trying to be a “summer hit.” It skipped over almost every important, intense, and moving part of the book and in their place was horrible costume design and a cheesy soundtrack. The film is about Lily Bloom, played by Blake Lively, a woman who moves to Boston to start her own business. After she came back from her father’s funeral, she met a dreamy doctor, who is later revealed to be Ryle Kincaid, on a balcony of a building she doesn’t live in. He was clearly going through something, but still expressed a lot of interest in her. They shared secrets about themselves before he was called away for work. Lily goes on to open her flower shop and make a friend, who happens to be the sister of Ryle, the neurosurgeon she met not too long ago. 

The movie barely explains how Lily’s abusive father, Andrew Bloom, acted throughout her life and leaves the viewers wondering why she can’t give the eulogy for her dad. She feels that she doesn’t have anything good to say about him. Later, her mom thanks her for standing up for them and being strong when she couldn’t. When she is out to dinner, she sees that Atlas, her first love from her teenage years, is their waiter. As Ryle and Lily’s relationship progresses, flashbacks of Lily’s past and Atlas start to appear. It portrays their romance, but also shows how her dad was abusive toward her mom and Atlas. The backstory clips could have been helpful and connected dots in viewers' minds. Instead, they were awkwardly placed in parts of the movie where it didn’t make sense. Moreover, the flashbacks were just more cringe worthy acting with scenes that only created more questions. The movie did not dive into how Lily’s character evolved after so many years, and just focused on the romance. After reading the book, one would expect a devastating yet hopeful film and although it will bring some tears, “It Ends With Us” lacks the emotional intricacy viewers were looking for. 

Soon, Lily and Ryle get married and their relationship and marriage starts to echo her parents' relationship. It starts small, but as she stays with him and forgives him again, the abuse gets worse. Additionally, Lily sees Atlas more and more. She eventually separates herself from Ryle when she finds out she is pregnant. She realizes that she doesn’t want her child to go through this and remembers her promise to herself that she would never let a man treat her the way her father treated her mother. In the end, watchers of “It Ends With Us” are left with a movie that doesn't accent the struggle of Lily leaving her abuser and makes it seem like it's easy to walk away from a person you are attached to, even if they don’t treat you well. This film had the potential to recognize victims of abuse and often how hard it is to leave abusers and it did highlight Lily’s earnesty to try and help Ryle, however, in the end, it almost feels like “It Ends With Us” was more about how easy it was for Lily to move on than the difficulties of domestic abuse.