Film: It Ends With Us

This might be a difficult review for me to write. Not because I didn’t like the movie, quite the opposite, but because I don’t know what to say without giving it away. I know that won’t matter for some since It Ends With Us is based on the novel by Colleen Hoover, but there are those, like me, who have not read the original material. I’m not familiar with the story, so I didn’t know what to expect. Yet, due to the trailer, I sort of did. I knew I was in for a love story, but I didn’t know which kind: a tragic or a self-care one. I was surprised at all the feelings and journey I was taken on. It’s for that reason, the unexpected emotional experience, that makes me want to stay spoiler-free with this review. 

It Ends With Us is a story about a young woman, Lily Bloom (Blake Lively), who finds her way through her tragic past, which includes her first love Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), as she pursues her dream to open a flower shop in Boston. As life unfolds, she finds her best friend, Allysa (Jenny Slate), and love, Ryle (Justin Baldoni), both in unexpected ways. Ultimately, though, her journey leads to finding self-love and her hidden strength to navigate the future she deserves.

To be completely transparent, I’m a cynic. While I appreciate the tingles of love, it always ends with a hardy eye-roll from me. It mainly boils down to the expectations and accommodations placed on women in these scenarios, but that’s for another time. (Except for Pride and Prejudice, that story is my love beacon.) This movie, however, feels different. It’s complicated, it’s raw, it’s emotional, and the plight of Lily is plausible while also being respectable. The love match is presented convincingly, allowing for the illusion to blind the viewer just as it did for our characters. You understand the journey, the justification, and the choices. I never once felt baffled or annoyed with what unfolded, I was living this romantic life with Lily, Ryle, and Atlas.

This is the point where I remind readers that I have not read the book. As mentioned before, my aversion to romance kept this book off my radar entirely. My intrigue was poked when I saw the trailer and realized the cast (more on this later). I was nervous about going into It Ends With Us without any previous knowledge of the book, especially since I realized how beloved it was. I was worried that I would miss out on so much because I hadn’t read the book. That wasn’t the case, for I felt included in all things that related to this story. It stood on its own as a movie, and I’m glad I went into this movie blindly.

Watching adaptions of beloved stories is difficult, and can at times be heart-wrenching. Believe me, I’ve been there, which is why I try to adapt an appreciate for the individual medium they are presented in. The book has its worth, one of rich descriptions and emotions that can only be reached by the written word. The movie, as well, has its own worth, with its visual representations and synchronicity in the character’s journey. They both have value, and they both deserve to be consumed. It Ends With Us has value in both mediums. I’m grateful I saw the film, and I’m excited to read the book. I now have two ways to fall in love with this story.

With that said, I did overhear some bookish ladies mentioning that the cinematic Ryle was more attractive than the written one. I mean, to be fair, a non-attractive person rarely has any sort of lead in film/television, but in this context, I think it was a necessity. When reading, you are presented with much more backstory and more emotional behind-the-curtain insight, and you fall in love with the perfect man, on paper. That doesn’t translate well, most of the time, in the film when this type of character is present. In It Ends With Us you are seeing all the complexity laid out like a presentation of flaws, and unless the flaws come in an appealing package, visually it’s hard to find a reason to stay. Yes, I realize how superficial that is, but unfortunately, audiences need that element to believe a story like this. You have to be charmed by sight to be blinded by who Ryle becomes. It’s not just that Baldoni is attractive; it’s his smile that pulls at the heartstrings, it’s the eyes that appreciate your worth, and it’s his presence that makes you want to believe there is good in people. 

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but one of my favorite things is watching actors break out of their mold and surprise me with their range. That’s not to say that It Ends With Us is a drastically different movie than these actors have done before, but they each brought out elements within their talent that sparked a new appreciation for them as entertainers. 

Amy Morton, Jenny Bloom, brought out a softness in her I haven’t seen much from her. She’s known as a ball-busting Chicago cop in the Chicago series Chicago Fire and Chicago PD, at least to me. Seeing her as a woman in a loving abusive relationship made me forget about those series and see her vulnerability. Who the heck is Isabela Ferrer, young Lily, and how did they find a Lively clone? Not only did she mimic some key mannerisms, but she fully laid the foundation for who Lively herself would portray. The pairing of Lively and Ferrer made the story all that more believable. They played brilliantly against each other. Hasan Minhaj, Marshall, as a dorky yet endearing brother-in-law, is the perfect representation of want in a side character. In a story where class differences could be problematic, he makes tech-bro wealth tolerable. We cannot forget the best best friend Slate, Allysa. We’ve seen her range before, but her loyalty in It Ends With Us is beautiful. We can only hope that we find the type of friend that Allysa is in real life, one who loves family and friends unconditionally but also sees our individual worth. 

I’m not familiar with Sklenar, Atlas, but his approach to this role was interesting. It’s a bit of a difficult character, the past love who disappeared but is still protective. Sklenar walked the thin line between present yet withdrawn well. Maybe he was more involved in the novel, I can see where that might be the case, but this delicate balance is exactly what It Ends With Us needs. While I’ve mentioned earlier what Baldoni brought to Ryle, it is different from his run on Jane the Virgin, but his turn as director is what I love the most. There’s a vulnerability, a complexity, that ties all the stories and generations together. That’s a tall order for a film that both destroys and heals your heart. I’m excited to see if he ventures into more stories like this in his directing pursuits. Lastly, I have to give major props to Lively. I think sometimes people forget that she has become someone who can stand on her own two acting feet, I know this because I am one of them. Lively allowed the audience to not only understand the character but allowed openness within that to find ourselves. You saw yourself in Lily, even though you might not have ever been in that situation. The strength, the vulnerability, and the barricades that encompass Lily is alive and well in Lively’s performance. 

To some extent, I realize that no matter what I have expressed in this review might not matter to the majority of It Ends With Us audience. No matter how well a movie is made, if it’s an adaptation of a novel, the bookish fan’s expectation will override any options from others. I have a hope that the bookish audience goes into this film with open arms, willing to see a movie version of it. I hope it moves them in the same way the book did. This movie left me speechless, it stayed with me, and it made me revisit my interest in this genre. That’s all you can hope for in a film. I look forward to allowing the novel to do the same.

It Ends With Us opens nationwide on Friday, August 9th.

Written by Lisa M Mejia
Images provided by Columbia Pictures