It Ends With Us: Earnest and well intentioned romance falls into too many stumbling blocks

⭐⭐1/2

Rob Ryan

"It Ends With Us" is a well intentioned and at times earnest film about the cycles of abuse that unfortunately has too many stumbling blocks for it to completely come together, I had reservations going in considering its based on the best selling book by Coleen Hoover who seems to write a new novel every 15 minutes and the one book of her's I have read (Verity) I found to be a ludicrously plotted novel with thin characters. To my surprise, I found my self invested in the film's central conflict and the potential nuances of it's subject matter before the film decisively looses it's way.

It's a shame because there's a lot here that works, director-producer and co-star Justin Baldoni has a good movie in him even if this isn't up to snuff, Blake Lively has never been better and some individual scenes are incredibly effective. The Plot: Lively plays Lilly Blossom Bloom who after attending her abusive dad's funeral sits on a balcony of a luxury apartment. It's here she meets Ryle (Baldoni) who is having a bad day himself and wouldn't you know it, there's chemistry, Ryle however is not a relationship type person and Lilly isn't interested on taking their chance encounter any further either, so the two part ways.

Months later, Lilly opens her flower shop in down town Boston (hence her name) on her first day she meets Alyssa (Jenny Slate) who asks if a job is available, Lilly soon becomes accustomed to Alyssa's friend group including her husband Marshall (Hassan Minhaj) and her brother....Ryle. He admits he hasn't stopped thinking about her ever since they first met, Lilly resists his constant advances before she inevitably gives in. In between these scenes we get flashbacks to Young Lilly (Isabella Ferrer) and her first love, a homeless boy named Atlas (Alex Neustaediter) the less you fixate on the silly names of the main characters the better. The two parted ways as their lives took on different paths but Lilly see's him again (Brandon Sklenar) at his restaurant while at the same time, Ryle in intense situations starts to show his aggressive side, which only comes out when he losses trust in Lilly's commitment to their relationship once she starts getting close to her old friend.

The problems with this film are the following. When Ryle has one of his abusive episodes, the film unintentionally makes it as if it it's all Lilly's fault, for example, Lilly has a heart tattoo on her collarbone that was in memory of Atlas when he carved a heart from an Oak tree, Lilly makes no secret to Ryle during their first encounter that when she was a teenager she lost her virginity to a homeless boy. Despite this, Lilly proceeds to lie to Ryle about the significance of this tattoo even though there isn't really any need to at least in the first two acts. But when Ryle eventually finds out, its when he becomes more of a monster and it makes me think that if Lilly had been transparent from the start then there would be no need for him to distrust her and take his rage out on her, it makes his argument seem valid despite the harm he's inflicting on her and that's not something that I should be thinking about because it gives off a victim blamey mentality to the events on display. The film makes the case that Lilly avoids talking about Atlas just to not get Ryle worked up, but if it had properly addressed Lilly's lack of transparency due to her fear of opening up about herself while obviously not excusing Ryle's behaviour then at least that could have given this some much needed nuance.

Ryle from the start is a very pushy character and his behaviour screams suspect before he becomes an abusive asshole. Their first encounter was a playful, quirky and charming scene (not counting him flipping a chair over which again suspect) and had the film maintained that tone and included a smooth transition between showing his loveable side before revealing his monstrous side, then it would have been more of a gut punch when his alter ego takes the fore front but because Ryle is written in such a two dimensional way and is so forceful to have Lilly's babies despite her initial no's, it robs those scenes of any dramatic payoff due to the audience being in no doubt on where its all going to go.

(Spoilers ahead)

When things escalate to a worse degree, the film makes the error of trying to redeem not only the abuser of our protagonist, but even the abuse inflicted by her dad (Kevin McKidd) against her mother (Amy Morton) in the end is treated in a nonchalant manner that doesn't do justice to the subject matter, I'm not saying that everything has to be black and white, but at this point in the story, Ryle is shown very powerfully how manipulative he is and how much of a pattern this behaviour really is, to a point that any sort of sympathy given to him from then on rings false. There's a dramatic revelation involving a death a family member years ago that Ryle feels responsible for but how does this excuse or correlate to being an abuser in the first place? Why does this guy deserve anything other than psychiatric help? Why does Lilly act in a way around him that isn't completely on edge? I'm not someone who is a victim of relationship abuse so take what I say with a grain of salt but in most cases I've seen, I highly doubt most people in Lilly's case would be comfortable to let the abuser help her make a crib for their new baby, or let him hold said baby after giving birth.

The films ending is also a letdown, I read the plot synopsis for the book on wikipedia and it ends in a "will they won't they" kind of way meaning on the one hand, Lilly is happy and contended with not having a relationship with Atlas or anyone but it keeps that possibility of the two reconnecting romantically open, here there's no grey area on whether or not they will finally be together at last and it cheapens that more realistic and nuanced ending that despite being for the YA romance crowd, shows the possibility of having a solitary existence without having a relationship be the thing that defines you. I guess it just goes to show that when adapting these things to the big screen, Hollywood just won't do if a protagonist is given the choice to live free of the expectations of finding that special someone.

I sound very harsh towards the film but had these elements been tweaked then I could have forgiven everything else, Blake Lively and Brandon Sklenar have genially good chemistry, their dynamic and relationship is easily the most compelling aspect of the movie. The film could have leaned into full on melodrama with its abuse scenes but I was surprised how tasteful it was all done despite what's being depicted is anything but, all the elements are in place, there's a good film in here but it just doesn't get there.

I'll leave this review with a random thought I had during the movie, the costume design by Eric Daman should get some sort of recognition from the academy purely on the basis of making Jenny Slate look as stunning and sexy as possible, I'm not entirely sure what the intent was there but It was a thankful aspect of the film I at least appreciated.