‘It Ends With Us’ movie review: Blake Lively-led romantic drama does not fire on all cylinders

Blake Lively’s It Ends With Us is romantic drama based on Colleen Hoover's novel, with beautiful visuals but lacking substance.

First off, It Ends With Us is a romantic drama, not a rom-com and definitely not a date movie. Fans of Colleen Hoover’s 2016 best-selling novel, that the film is based on, have expressed disappointment at leaving out certain key facts and moments. However, at just over two hours the film feels like a bit of a slog. Approaching the movie like a fluffy rom-com, even though the trailer encourages one to do just that, would be a complete disaster.  

The film opens with Lily (Blake Lively) returning home for her father’s (Kevin McKidd) funeral. When her mother, Jenny, (Amy Morton) asks her about the eulogy she is to give, she admits to not writing it. She has nothing to say at the funeral staring down the empty bullet points on a serviette and abruptly walking out of the service.

Sitting on the ledge of a high rise trying to process her feelings, she meets an impossibly handsome stranger, Ryle (Justin Baldoni) and the two form a connection. Ryle lives in the apartment block and is a neurosurgeon. Lily, whose middle name is Blossom and whose surname is Bloom, loves flowers and wishes to open a florist shop. One almost wishes to agree with Ryle that her parents must have hated her something fierce. 

Lily goes ahead and opens a totally ‘gram-able florist called Lily Bloom’s. As she is cleaning the store, Allysa (Jenny Slate), walks in and after saying she hates flowers, agrees to work for Lily. Despite Ryle preferring to keep things casual and Lily wanting a commitment, the two continue to see each other and their feelings deepen for each other.

Simultaneously, there are flashbacks of young Lily (Isabela Ferrer) forming a bond with a homeless boy, Atlas (Alex Neustaedter). Lily, Ryle, and Atlas, (there is nothing subtle about the names) have to process childhood trauma before they can move forward to make something of their lives. When Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), now a chef running a successful restaurant called Roots, reenters Lily’s life, she sees a side of Ryle that is a major cause for concern.

It Ends With Us is coy in its portrayal of domestic abuse, perhaps in a bid not to glamourise it, or have it devolve into gratuitousness. But the fuzzy frames and sharp cuts also divorce the viewer from the happenings on screen. The reason given for one of the character’s abuse is troubling.

The scene towards the end in the hospital with deciding on the baby’s name and divorce from the postpartum bed is so overwrought that one cannot help snickering. Acting-wise, Lively works with the material at hand while the men do not have much to do apart from providing eye candy and looking hurt or hurtful by turns, which they do competently.