Directed by: Justin Baldoni
Written by: Christy Hall based on Colleen Hoover’s book
Starring: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj, Brandon Sklenar, Alex Neustaedter, and Isabela Ferrer
Runtime: 130 minutes
‘It Ends with Us’ delivers an important message along with a never-ending array of rom-trauma cliches
Lily Bloom’s (Blake Lively) life is starting to blossom, and “Blossom” is her middle name. Truly.
This 20-something Bostonian moved from Stephen King country in (fictional) Plethora, Maine, and she owns a massive, gorgeous flower shop, one overflowing with buds and florets.
One evening, while sitting on the roof of a pristine apartment building, she meets a guy, a striking fellow named Ryle (Justin Baldoni), who also happens to be a neurosurgeon.
You can’t make this stuff up.
(Ryle looks like a runway-model version of Sacha Baron Cohen (a.k.a. Borat), but this Superman doctor deploys smarmy, creepy player vibes and pursues Lily like a stalker. He won’t take no for an answer. Ick! Unfortunately, she caves to his pressure, but hey, we need the movie to happen, right?)
This is a dream scenario for Lily. Could life get any better?
Life is a far cry from her nightmarish upbringing in King’s Pine Tree State, where she witnessed her father’s lifetime ritual of inflicting domestic abuse on her mother, Jenny (Amy Morton).
Has Lily overcome her past, and has she escaped this cycle of abuse?
“It Ends with Us”, based on Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel (so, apparently, you can make this stuff up), attempts to answer these questions. Baldoni performs triple duty as a director and producer as well.
This critic did not read Hoover’s novel because a 50-something man is not the target audience. Now, if Larry Bloom opens a hugely successful sports bar (with no apparent means of raising the capital), Gisele Bundchen swings by the pub, and she instantly falls for Larry, perhaps I’d buy that book.
No question, the “It Ends with Us” film adaptation offers an important message about attempting to defeat past demons and face present challenges. Baldoni and screenwriter Christy Hall (“Daddio” (2023)) do an admirable job of revealing Lily’s adolescent experiences and tying them into her days as a businesswoman grown-up. The film volleys between the two experiences and frequently returns to a time when teenage Lily (Isabela Ferrer) and her first boyfriend, Atlas (Alex Neustaedter), navigate their awkward but sweet courtship.
Quite frankly, young Lily and young Atlas’ relationship – with grounded moments of making cookies, a bus ride, and first kisses - is engaging and feels more authentic than the happenings with our present-day heroine. Let’s have a 130-minute big-screen story with young Lily and Atlas instead.
Anyway, Blake’s Lily bestie, Allysa (Jenny Slate), and her husband, Marshall (Hasan Minhaj), have more money than God and throw luxurious parties. We don’t see Lily dealing with the day-to-day stresses of owning a business or supplier issues, watering the plants, or working with customers other than Ryle or current-day Atlas (Brandon Sklenar) stopping in to say, “Hello.”
Ryle works an easy, breezy 9-to-5 work schedule because brain surgeries aren’t in high demand in Beantown, and Lily prepares dinner before he gets home. Her floral shop runs itself. Of course, Ryle and Lily’s relationship in this film is paramount, so day-to-day operational challenges aren’t significant, but “It Ends with Us” decorates a fantasyland of domestic riches, and a never-ending utopia of tranquil conveniences splash on the screen.
Baldoni, cinematographer Barry Peterson, and art directors Marci Mudd and Annie Simeone offer Lily a welcoming environment while including montages of big city life as an array of maudlin songs similar to Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want to Wait” from “Dawson’s Creek” (1998 – 2003) shower through the movie theatre’s speakers. The film also frequently cuts away to momentary wide shots of downtown Boston in between scenes so often that shades of Tommy Wiseau’s infamous “The Room” (2003) – where he deploys a similar strategy with San Francisco – creep into view.
Granted, “It Ends with Us” isn’t a bad film, but it’s an all-too-familiar cinematic formula that feels like a nuanced grandchild of “The Burning Bed” (1984), a TV movie starring Farrah Fawcett that gave birth to 100,000 or so similar cautionary tales.
Admittedly, “It Ends with Us” is critic-proof and will probably pack theatres, like “Transformers: Age of Extinction” (2014) did with an entirely different audience. But hey, if millions of young women take away the positives of the movie’s message through Lively’s and Baldoni’s capable performances, who can argue with that, right? So, cheers to that hopeful sentiment.
Still, the same lesson can be gleaned while watching countless other rom-trauma options via streaming, and “It Ends with Us” won’t be the last such film to cover this dicey topic.
Jeff’s ranking
2/4 stars
