“It Ends With Us” Is Not Your Typical Romance Film

It’s a shame that “It Ends With Us” has taken the “Don’t Worry Darling” route, with the drama and controversy surrounding the film taking up more space and discourse than the film itself, because the film is not only quite good but it also conveys an important message. In my view, “It Ends With Us” should be mandatory viewing for all teenage girls.

The film is an adaptation of the book of the same name by Colleen Hoover and follows Lily Blossom Bloom, a woman who runs a flower shop (yes, I am serious - at least the character acknowledges how absurd this is in the book). Lily’s father was an abusive man, and as a child, she wrote diary entries to Ellen DeGeneres (again, I am serious) about her predicament - she swore to never become like her mother, a woman who refused to walk away from the abuse. Years later, Lily meets a rich and attractive neurosurgeon but also crosses paths with a boy from her past who witnessed her tumultuous childhood. Sadly, jealousy forms on the part of her neurosurgeon partner, Ryle, and he begins to abuse Lily.

Colleen Hoover, the author, has had her fair share of controversies and is considered by many book lovers to be a poor (although popular) writer of women’s romance novels, in the same sort of category as Stephenie Meyer or E.L. James.

Popular YouTuber Contrapoints once opined in a video essay regarding the “Twilight” saga that critics and the public in general often turn their noses at popular smut or romance novels like “50 Shades of Grey” - either because the storylines are problematic and glorify domestic violence (which both those franchises absolutely do) or because it’s just considered lowbrow, with fantastical scenarios about impossibly rich men or convenient coincidences for the sake of driving the plot forward (not to mention, bad writing in general).

Men’s fantastical novels do not often receive the same criticism as women’s novels. I don’t mean to digress too far - simply put, Colleen Hoover is also guilty of putting many of these tropes in her novel, but they are, in fact, enjoyable and many lines did make me smile, even if the prose is not top quality and Lily Blossom Bloom is so incredibly basic it staggers belief.

I believe these tropes and the types of viewers Contrapoints refers to are responsible for the 58% Rotten Tomatoes rating for “It Ends With Us” from critics, which is unfair - I would give it a 75% as it was well-acted, well-paced, has great messaging, and the writing is passable. Much like “Where the Crawdads Sing,” this female fantasy has a poor critic score but a strong audience score despite the underlying message being compelling, and it is a real shame that critics have not yet come to appreciate this type of work.

The film adapts the book well, with attractive, likable and relatable characters on-screen. It even cleans up some of the stilted dialogue. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still very stilted, but it’s better than it was in the book. It tidies plot points and is overall quite a faithful adaptation, with some characters like Allysa, Lily’s shop assistant and Ryle’s sister, being even more likable than they were in the book.

Some book fans complained that they didn’t feel movie Lily had quite the same energy as book Lily, given the way she dressed and her age, but this is a common complaint with adaptations, and I really didn’t see a problem with either. What makes this novel and film more elevated than your standard woman’s smut fantasy is how it ends - in books like “Twilight,” the heroine lives happily ever after with her man and her baby (or babies). In real life? These types of relationships often become emotionally or physically abusive, because they have toxic dynamics - and that is exactly what happens with Lily.

Ryle becomes abusive, and Lily doesn’t want to admit it at first. She wants to say this situation is different from her mother, that it was an accident, that she made him angry, that he can change. She falls into the same pattern as thousands of women before her before she even realizes what is happening.

This story is so, so important, because it starts the same way as any other romantic comedy - you want to love the hot, rich main character, you want it to work out, you want to ignore the red flags. But you realize by the end, you shouldn’t, and I imagine many, many women will relate to Lily Bloom. I hope that many will choose to leave their abusers after watching the film.

So, we have to talk about Blake Lively and the press for this film. It is unequivocally disgusting; I will not mince words. Blake, despite somehow giving an excellent and convincing performance, has made this film all about herself and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. The press has been about florals and having a good time with your girlfriends, like with the “Barbie” movie - even the poster is deceptive. It’s being marketed as a rom-com, not as a drama, and this is a problem.

Justin Baldoni, the director and the actor who plays Ryle, has reportedly fallen out with both the author and Blake over this distinction, as he wanted to emphasize the domestic violence aspect while they wanted to emphasize the rom-com aspect. There have been claims that he was chauvinistic on set - if this is true, that’s disappointing and worth condemning, but his point still stands.

What matters is that this film is important viewing and it’s sad that this drama has become the focal point. While I conceptually like the idea of women being lured into the theater thinking this is romantic, only to realize it’s violent - because that does so often happen in real life, and it’s important that women are aware of this danger - it’s also unfair to potentially expose victims of domestic violence to this film without them realizing what they are walking into.

Despite all the jokes surrounding them, trigger warnings exist for a reason. Not to mention, all this focus on Blake - and her alcohol brand promoted off the back of this film (I am serious, she also named one of her cocktails after the abuser), and her haircare brand launched in tandem with the film, and her emphasis on florals, and her husband, and her hyping of “Deadpool & Wolverine” - is incredibly disrespectful to the film’s weighty subject matter. Both she and Colleen should be ashamed.

Ignore the drama. See the movie.