It Ends With Us, the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s Book Tok sensational novel of the same name, starring Blake Lively, Brandon Sklena and Justin Baldoni in lead roles attempts to address serious, gut-wrenching subject of domestic violence. Such narratives around domestic abuse are needed to be shown, as domestic violence is a widely common occurrence in real life that most of people experience or are atleast surrounded by but can’t recognize.
Hoover herself has said, that she wrote this book to understand her mother’s perspective of not leaving an abusive marriage when she was physically abused by Hoover’s father. There is an actual need for movies like this in reality. People (men and women both) often need to cry their hearts out, and aren’t the movies the best place for that?
However, in It Ends With Us, directed by Baldoni (plays Ryle) doesn’t have the power to get us weeping let alone blubbering. Blake Lively (produced the movie) plays the role of Lily Bloom, a kind young woman with an unconventional boho wardrobe and a suspiciously bright outlook on life. Finally capable of fulfilling her dream, Lily lives in Boston. This is a period of change for her as her father just died, and she’s not sure how to cope with her feelings.
We discover that Lily’s father abused her mother, which has left her with mixed-feelings about his death. Lily having returned from the funeral goes to the rooftop of a building to clear her muddled thoughts. Here comes Ryle (Baldoni) an attractive neurosurgeon, who is an occupant of the building and Lily’s life as she knows changes forever. Despite being subtly warned by her new friend Alyssa (who is Ryle’s sister) about him Lily falls for Ryle. Lily and Ryle get together and then Lily meets Atlas (Brandon Sklena) her teenage love now a restaurateur. Sparks start flying again as two reconnect but Lily decides to stay with Ryle.
Till this point, It Ends With Us could be your typical but not overly deep romantic drama, complete with romantic bewilderment. But you’ll know what’s coming, if you have read Hoover’s novel. Lily becomes the victim of domestic abuse herself, and it doesn’t arrive with loud warning bells. In fact, slowly but surely one incident after another occurs while Ryle harms Lily in some ways. Still Lily seems to think Ryle can be “fixed”. Because he is going through his own trauma which causes him to lash out. The movie is truthful and good in this case, so many women may be victims of domestic violence but never know how bad it can get, until it gets really bad.
Yet none of that is enough to make you entirely get what the movie’s telling. Lively has been great in other movies. But It Ends With Us sadly breaks her streak. The men, with their flaws—even kind, resolute Atlas has is very snappy, a beige flag if not a red one- is far more interesting than Lily is. That doesn’t give them the right to incite violence; but from a theatrical point of view, it certainly makes them more power-driven.
As Lively plays her, Lily is a vacant, glossy surface that she only reflects the shortcomings of the men around her; that’s not the same as being a person. Even by the movie’s end, she still feels like something of a subdued stranger—it’s the men who come off as fully alive, as dangerous as one of them may be.
Also Read: Blake Lively: 6 Dazzling Met Gala Looks
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