Blake Lively stars in the new movie, “It Ends with Us” alongside Justin Baldoni, which premiered in theatres August 9th, 2024 and has been getting lots of mixed reviews since the release. This movie is an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s book. It all starts off with Blake’s character, Lily Bloom moving to Boston for a fresh start. She decides to peruse her long-life dream, opening her own flower shop. In Boston, she meets Ryle Kincaid, played by Justin Baldoni, and develops a deep connection with him instantly. As she goes on falling in love with Ryle, she begins to see sides of him that resemble her parents’ relationship negatively. This shows his true colors which, unfortunately, involving domestic violence. Suddenly her first love, Atlas Corrigan, played by Brandon Sklenar, reenters her life and makes her realize she needs to be strong on her own. This forces her to make a choice for her future.
Many have been saying this movie romanticized its theme, domestic violence (DV), but did it really? From one perspective, yes, it was glossing over Ryle and his actions. But, keep in mind, this was from the perspective of the victim in this situation. This being from the POV of Lily Bloom herself does give a sort of non-serious-enough effect on the DV in this movie. This being said, the way Blake Lively has been treating the press for this movie does not help her case.
“…grab your friends, wear your florals, and come out to see it.” Blake says in recent interview about the movie. Compared to what Justin has to say about the movie when told it’s “His night tonight”, “…no this is not my night, this is a night for all the women we made this movie for…”. You can clearly see the different ways they are advertising this movie to people. Justin is focused in on the DV aspect of it, while Blake is more into the floral detailing of the movie. Part of this could be related to Blake Lively’s new hair products’ recent drop, “Blake Brown”, yet this does not excuse her almost ignoring the entire point of this movie.
Lots of people were hoping the book would translate to movie with the same theme, DV, being just as prominent as it is in the movie. Some say the theme was never there, not even in the book. This seems more of a difference in interpretation. As mentioned previously, this entire experience that Lily Bloom goes through is not in third person, it is coming straight from her eyes. This can cause a misconception that the book and or movie is glamorizing DV.
Overall, this movie is solid. It does a good job at getting through the plot. Although it gets a bit slow at some parts, it mostly gets to its point, and the characters are well thought out. Each character seems to be well-casted and fits their role. Contrary to what many are saying about the movie, it does not glorify DV to me, it explains the topic pretty well throughout Lily’s experience. Although Blake’s actions tell a different story. In the end, I would not recommend this movie to others; not enough “umph” behind it.
