I am not a Colleen Hoover reader. Never have been. Probably never will be. I can read all I want to about those nauseating covers with sweeping fonts. It is not something written to satisfy cynics like me.
But here’s the thing. The hoover novels have been taking up the bestseller lists over the years. Her books are sold in their millions. Why did it take a long time to have a film adaptation then? Mystery solved, I guess. It Ends With Us is eventually finding its way to the screen and I know precisely where it belongs. Combine this with the episodes of Bridgerton on the streaming services and you are now enjoying a ready-to-consume dedicated audience. If you need info related Wedding Ring Right or Left Hand? The Complete Guide for American Couples.
I came into this romantic play with an idea of what to believe. Upper-middle-class settings. Heavy-handed emotions. Swift by Taylor songs in the backgrounds of heartbreak scenes. I wasn’t wrong about any of it.
It Ends With Us is a present that gives the fans what they desire. However it also falters into very problematic issues with the way it approaches domestic violence. And that is where this book-to-film adaptation turns into something good-natured melodrama to something worth looking into it.
The Setup – Flowers, Names, and Ridiculous Coincidences
Blake Lively as Lily Bloom (Because Subtlety Is Dead)
At the beginning of the film, there is a funeral of the father. Lily Bloom, an actress in the movie who is portrayed by Blake Lively, goes back to her hometown to attend the funeral. She is at the stage with problems in the eulogy. She is unable to enumerate five positive things about her father. Not one nice memory surfaces.
Why? Because he was abusive. He beat her mother. The traumatic childhood memories start swamping back as Lily attempts to speak. It is what is our first encounter with the factual content of the film under the appearance somewhat of a romance drama film. If you want to read about What Size Windshield Wipers Do I Need? Your Complete Guide to Finding the Perfect Fit visit this page.
In the City of Boston, back, Lily starts her own flower shop. Yes, a woman by the name of Lily Bloom who sells flowers. The movie nearly smiles at the absurdity of this. Even Lily appears to be embarrassed by the fact when she meets Ryle Kincaid.
Blake Lively gives this role the serious acting that the material cannot be without. She doesn’t wink at the camera. She does not discredit the emotional story. She devotes her self to the soppy style of storytelling which the fans of Hoover novel anticipate.
Enter the Neurosurgeon Prince Charming
Ryle Kincaid is all that a lead should be in any romance drama. He’s gorgeous. He’s wealthy. He’s a neurosurgeon. Of course he is. He is perfectly portrayed by Justin Baldoni (also a director of the movie) in his charming and intense manner.
Ryle is a reformed womanizer. Or so he claims. He encounters Lily and is suddenly in a mood to get married. The trope of the rekindled romance is also reversed since this time around, Lily is his new start. Not an old flame.
The romance between Lively and Baldoni works. Their banter feels natural. The scenes of the adult romance are sincerely warm. The film nearly succeeds when it is devoted to them as people falling in love.
But this streaming-era romance is also being directed by Justin Baldoni. That dual role matters. We’ll get to why later.
The Best Friend Who Materializes Out of Thin Air
One day Lily is sweeping up her vacant shop. A woman is walking in off the street. Alysa, a character portrayed by Jenny Slate, is a young and rich person who seems to be bored enough to request an employment in a non-existing flower shop.
They become instant friends. Then we get to know that Alysa is the sister of Ryle. What are the odds?
This character distracted me all through the film. Does she get paid? Does she have other friends? We just watch her with her husband, Marshall (the role of which is played by Hasan Minhaj, who is criminally underutilized). Does she not do anything in her life?
These are character red flags that the film did not heed of, call me skeptical. Alysa is there just to introduce Lily to Ryle and advance the storyline. She lacks any depth beyond that role.
The Dual Timelines Structure – When Flashbacks Don’t Quite Flash
Young Lily and Homeless Atlas
The movie switches back and forth between the current and the flashbacks to the teenage years of Lily. Atlas (Alex Neustaedter) is a homeless man who runs into Young Lily (Isabela Ferrer) in an abandoned house close to her house.
They fall in love. He’s vulnerable and sweet. She is running away to evade her abusive father and abused mother back home. Their teen love is her escape out of family maltreatment.
But here’s the problem. These flashback scenes are draggy. The two timelines cripple rather than aid the storytelling. Young Lily and Atlas are like inadequately predictable plot lines that are being used to service the main story.
Adult chemistry between Lily and Ryle is infinitely more interesting than any sort of “sappy teen corny sludge” that the younger time gives. Whenever we revert to teen drama, energy goes dead.
And what is occurring with these names, really? Lily Bloom. Ryle Kincaid. Atlas. Did someone lose a bet?
Adult Atlas Returns (Of Course He Does)
Then adult Atlas appears. He is portrayed by Brandon Sklenar as a doe eyed quiet intensity. He’s successful now. He owns a restaurant. But he does carry that hurt, tender power.
Lily hasn’t seen him in years. She believed that he was never coming back. He is now back in Boston and all those first love memories start flowing back. The love triangle is formed.
Here is where the film must have something to ponder upon. What about the issue of memory and past relationship and how do we reconcile with what we have become? To what extent is Lily different now than when she last saw Atlas? Has she grown? Dated other people? Learned about herself?
It Ends With Us does not want to ask these questions. It takes young love as this sublime frozen thing, which is not a part of time and development.
What It Ends With Us Could Have Been vs. What It Is
The Past Lives Comparison – Memory, Growth, and Missed Opportunities
The theme of change in our memory perceptions was discussed in the book Past Lives by last year. It raised some tough questions on whether we are the same individuals we were at the time when we fell in love. It discussed the personal development and the way it influences our desires.
Something like that could have been done in It Ends With Us. Lily was in love with Atlas who was a traumatized teenager. She is in love with her businessman Ryle who is an adult in Boston. So what is that to say about her journey?
Nothing. The movie will never take that route. It gives a hollow story of the first loves and existing relationships without looking at the complexity. Is there anyone else that Lily has dated since Atlas and Ryle? Did she work on herself? Did Atlas?
These questions matter. Personal growth and transformation are necessary in character development. However, to talk about them may be to break the safe narrative of the film in which it conceals itself. Can not afford that when you are aiming at a particular demographic of romancers.
The film stays surface level. It makes both the relationships complete and perfect in their own way. Musidlingly, this was only different schedules of the same pure love. It is superficial narrative construction in the guise of emotional drama.
The Domestic Violence Reality – Heavy-Handed But Effective?
However, it is that the truth comes out. It Ends With Us is, in fact, a domestic violence story. Of the cycle of violence between the generations. It seems like we have not really noticed the repetition of the generational trauma.
Ryle isn’t perfect. Not even close. The red flags of character build up. His temper flashes. He gets controlling. Then it escalates. What it is happening is not concealed in the film. It writes it all in, in a style that is almost appalling.
No nuance. No mystery. The simple fact of an abusive relationship unfolding exactly in this way. And this is where it becomes complicated.
On one hand, the emotional trauma, and mental influence of the domestic violence is not thoroughly investigated. The movie manipulates the power disparity as a plot and not analyzing its origins. It is a failure of thematic depth.
Conversely, the patterns cannot be missed because of the deficiency of subtlety. All those who have been through such circumstances would realize all the red flags. Every escalation. Every excuse. All the times of uncertainty and guilt.
Justin Baldoni’s Direction – Melodrama Turned Up to Eleven
Visual Style and Hoover Novel Aesthetic
Justin Baldoni is the director of this film as each frame should adorn a Hoover novel cover. Soft lighting. Romantic framing. It all appears costly and good-looking and a little bit unreal.
The melodrama is turned to the fullest. All the emotional pauses are accompanied by orchestra swells and intentional glances. Characters are gazing out of windows in thought. Rain falls during arguments. Flowers are visual metaphors at all times.
It is excessive emotions as conceived. It is fan driven cinema that understands what is expected by the book fans. And Baldoni adds just the right aesthetic to it.
The acting is in keeping with this film solemnity. Blake Lively, Brandon Sklenar, and Justin Baldoni himself are both invested in the increased reality that the story exists in. Nobody phones it in.
The Taylor Swift Third Act
The third act is performed on a Taylor Swift song. Because of course it does. Their emotional pop ballads come in just in time when the female led drama is at its peak.
This is the movie that provides the goods to the citizens. The streaming movie viewers who have created a Colleen Hoover phenomenon get precisely what they subscribed to. Piano music. Emotional revelations. Tears and resolution.
At this point, I am about to dismiss It Ends With Us. Yes, it is the same old, same old plot even in a pretty package. It is true that it does not have narrative complexity. But it manages to be what it is supposed to be. Why should that bother me?
The Ending – Where It All Falls Apart
The Repulsive Resolution (Strong Words, I Know)
The movie brings its household drama to a close in the most disturbing manner. It is a mixture of I can fix him energy and what would you do with this was your daughter. rhetoric.
This is patronising decision at its worst. It is dangerous rhetoric covered with safe stories. And it does not actually understand the mechanics of abusive relationships.
The movie is of the view that the unequal balance of power in an abusive relationship can be corrected by creating awareness and development. That realization which knows the origin of the violence somehow responds to it. That curing versus responsibility are synonymous.
They’re not.
Expanding is not the solution when abuse is a result of power. There is no way of therapy yourself out of a person who decides to hurt you. The trauma they have does not mean that they cannot traumatize you.
The conclusion brings abusers a reprieve rather than bringing them to book. It implies that awareness of the cycle of violence is sufficient in order to end it. That’s not how this works. It is dangerous line of thought camouflaged as a kindly insight.
Why “It Ends With Us” Won’t Actually End
When this is the way that Lily copes with the situation, she would not be the last one. The vicious circle of violence persists. The intergenerational trauma is transferred.
The title of the movie turns ironic to the point of tragedy. When we go up to domestic violence in this manner it does not stop with us. It keeps going. It finds new forms. It adapts.
It is not merely a bad film. It is actively unhealthy communication on abusive relationships. It informs others in the same predicament that it is sufficient to understand. The growth is more important than safety. The patterns can overcome awareness alone.
Ethical connotations of this story ending are actually disturbing. And it is not myself only who is so pedantic about a romance drama. This matters.
Who Is This Movie Actually For?
The Target Audience Will Get What They Came For
Fans of Hoover novel will adore this movie. The writers of these bestsellers will have what they desire. Emotional payoff. Romantic scenes. Tears and drama and beautiful people in beautiful scenery.
The film version of the book is also true to the tone of the source material. It does not apologize to be what it is. That counts for something.
This will be devoured by streaming services. The movie is right in-between other romance-oriented movies of its streaming age. The loyal customer base is there and they would repeat.
It will not make a difference to them what I criticized. And that’s fine. Everything does not have to be to everyone.
For Everyone Else – A Warning
At least during the majority of its duration, the movie addresses the subject of abusive relationships in familiar terms. Then stumbles on the denouement in a grandiose way. Its message on the topic of healing and accountability is deeply misconceived.
It is not a matter of taste or preference. It has to do with the cultural influence of how we dramatize domestic violence in the press. It is not only about what the female-led dramas teach a viewer regarding the correct behavior and real-life solutions.
Conclusion
It Ends With Us has technically been successful as a melodrama. It gives the readers the emotional story that Colleen Hoover promises. Justin Baldoni is able to make a romantic drama that is visually polished and does not apologize about it.
Cast members, Blake Lively included, give serious performance. The values of production are in line with the upper-middle-class environment. The Taylor Swift moments are falling to the target demographic.
However, the message regarding domestic violence is the critical failure of the film. It forms patterns of abusive relationships that are easy to recognize. Then it solves them with nasty rhetoric that may be literally injurious to individuals. If you need more interested info like that visit quick guider.
The perilous contradiction lies in the following: the film may make certain viewers realize that they are abused in the real life via the heavy-handed methodology. But it can also retain them there with its ill-conceived solution.
That cherry on top? It has turn out to be rotten.
Film industries should hold films that address such serious topics as generational trauma and the cycle of violence higher. We are supposed to do better than patronising solutions with pretty wrapping papers.