Movie Review: It Ends With Us

Anyone that follows books even a little is probably aware of author Colleen Hoover’s meteoric rise to superstardom over the last couple years, largely based on the rabid following her novels accumulated on TikTok. It’s truly been astounding to see a shortform video based social media website prove to be so powerful in the publishing world, helping to launch the careers of several writers, but perhaps none has so far been bigger than Hoover and especially her most popular book, It Ends With Us. With sales figures well into the millions, it’s no surprise that Hollywood came knocking and now we have the first movie based on one of her novels (Confess was adapted into a TV series in 2017).

Teenage Lily Bloom (Isabela Ferrer) lives a seemingly idyllic life as the only child of a very wealthy family, though her parents’ relationship is marred by her father’s temper and abusive behavior. One day she witnesses fellow classmate Atlas (Alex Neustaedter) emerging from the abandoned mansion across the street and quickly realizes that he is in a bad place. While her classmates tease him over his poor hygiene, Lily offers to help and provides him with food and the use of a shower and washing machine. Over time the pair find themselves falling for each other, though circumstances will ultimately tear them apart.

As an adult, Lily (Blake Lively) is now reconciling her feelings over the death of her father. Unable to come up with anything nice to say about him she winds up fleeing from his funeral and back to her new home city of Boston. Once there, she sneaks her way onto the roof of a building with a beautiful view of the skyline to find some peace when one of the residents bursts onto the terrace and kicks a chair in anger. When he realizes he isn’t alone he quickly calms down and introduces himself as Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni, also the director), a neurosurgeon who just had a very difficult night. Lily is initially incredulous to be meeting someone so attractive with such an impressive career, but she finds herself curiously drawn to him. For his part, Ryle is immediately smitten with Lily, but after flirting his way into a kiss they are interrupted by his job and part ways, thinking they will likely never meet again.

In the morning, Lily arrives at the storefront she has just rented to open a flower shop and sets about tidying the place up when Allysa (Jenny Slate) comes in inquiring about the Help Wanted sign in the window. Lily hadn’t actually put it there and at first turns her down, but something about Allysa draws her in and so she winds up hiring her. The pair get the shop in order as their opening day approaches when one afternoon Allysa spots her husband Marshall (Hasan Minhaj) across the street with her brother and calls them over. Much to Lily’s surprise her brother turns out to be none other than Ryle. The group decide to go out for an evening of fun and Ryle begins aggressively courting Lily, one could argue perhaps even a little too aggressively.

Over time Ryle is able to wear Lily down and the pair begin dating, but there are some red flags around his behavior that have her sometimes questioning her decision to be with him. When she happens to run into a now grown-up Atlas (Brandon Sklenar) working in a trendy Boston restaurant she finds herself feeling more conflicted. Nevertheless, she stays with Ryle and while it is apparent that they both love each other very much, it also seems more and more like she isn’t truly safe with him.

Domestic abuse is a very delicate subject to handle and I don’t know that I feel like this movie does it correctly. I haven’t read the book so I can’t say if Hoover is better about it, but in Christy Hall’s script it feels more like the topic is being used for melodrama than to make any serious point about it, leading to a resolution that is implausibly neat and tidy. Still, Hall and Baldoni prove adept at eliciting the emotional responses from the audience that they are aiming for, especially when they want to turn on the waterworks.

It may have been on purpose, but the initial courtship between Lily and Ryle also feels more off-putting than romantic. Some of his attempts feel borderline stalkerish and if he wasn’t so good-looking it’s hard to imagine any woman appreciating being pursued that way, though once they are together the pair do display a more believable chemistry.

The cast do fine with the material, and Slate is especially charming in her supporting role. Also, the younger versions of Lily and Atlas were perfectly cast, with Ferrer nailing Lively’s mannerisms. The behind the camera team, including Baldoni, prove competent at movie making, though nothing really stands out aside from perhaps the production design in the flower shop. All in all, It Ends With Us is undeniably an entertaining movie with a story that’s hard not to get wrapped up in, but it feels like it both could have and should have been so much more. ★★★