
‘It Ends With Us’ – Review
A kaleidoscope of emotions and feelings awaits audiences in the big screen adaptation of author Colleen Hoover’s best-selling romance book, It Ends With Us, and this is an adaptation that you will truly feel with your heart.
It Ends With Us, the first Colleen Hoover novel adapted for the big screen, tells the compelling story of Lily Bloom (Blake Lively), a woman who overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life in Boston and chase a lifelong dream of opening her own business. A chance meeting with charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) sparks an intense connection, but as the two fall deeply in love, Lily begins to see sides of Ryle that remind her of her parents’ relationship. When Lily’s first love, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), suddenly reenters her life, her relationship with Ryle is upended, and Lily realizes she must learn to rely on her own strength to make an impossible choice for her future.
Author Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel, It Ends With Us, brought her a legion of fans and introduced audiences to the powerful character of Lily Bloom, a young woman determined to live her life on her terms. Now It Ends With Us has made its way to the big screen, and this is a film that’s big on romance, drama, and feeling. It’s a narrative that takes audiences to a new place emotionally. In watching this picture, you get all the standard romance tropes up front: a young woman looking for love and connection, a dashing and gorgeous suitor, and a whirlwind romance that follows. But It Ends With Us does something unexpected in the middle of its second act that completely rocks the boat of this narrative, and we see a sudden inversion of the romance genre, and the result is a much deeper, more resonating picture because of it.
It Ends With Us is a narrative that deals with the complete spectrum of love and connection, both the light and the dark. While it starts off with a bright, glamorous and sexy energy, it then turns into a haunting and scary portrait of sudden domestic abuse and one woman’s journey to leave that part of her life behind. Director Justin Baldoni has already proved himself to be a filmmaker who can produce incredibly moving pictures, and he really levels up the emotions of It Ends With Us in a very big way. Via Hoover’s story and Baldoni’s direction, there’s no hiding from the trauma and heartbreak of this story. He delivers a picture that captures the cost of an abusive relationship, and any psychologist will submit to the validity of the subject matter. It Ends With Us is a complicated and moving story, but it is a powerful one, and Baldoni handles it with sincerity and care.
Stepping into the role of Lily Bloom, both utterly and completely, is the glamorous Blake Lively, and her personal persona falls away as she completely inhabits the skin and emotions of this beautiful yet complicated character. Through extensive hair and make-up and costuming, Lively transforms herself into Lily, this bo-ho, quintessential girl-next-door whose love for the natural world and flowers leads her to move to Boston with the dream of opening her own flower store. It’s there that she falls for dashing, hunky and smooth-talking neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni). A fast and glamorous relationship soon grows between them, but then, in a sudden flash, Ryle’s dark side appears, and Lily is left in a bleak emotional place that brings up her past and makes her question her very future. While Lively may be one of the most glamorous and beautiful women in the world, as an actress, she has time and time again chosen projects that test her as an actress and cause her to dig deep in her performance. And this is exactly what we see here in Lively’s performance as Lily Bloom.
Praise needs to be levelled on Lively for her handling of the very heavy and sensitive emotions needed to portray the character, and in dealing with the film’s subject matter of an abusive relationship, Lively holds none of the pain or trauma back. What we see in Lively’s performance is a woman who undergoes a dramatic journey to question the path she’s on and to find the courage to find a new way forward. For Lively, the role of Lily Bloom is an intensely emotionally strong performance, and you feel every instance of joy and celebration, as well as heartbreak and sorrow. Lively gives us an incredibly full character as Lily. Lively’s role is also charged by the performance of newcomer Isabela Ferrer as the young Lily, and both actresses work in tandem to bring the character of Lily Bloom to life and to see her blossom.
Facing Lively as the two men in Lily’s life are Justin Baldoni as Lily’s dashing yet dangerous lover, Ryle Kincaid and Brandon Sklenar as Lily’s teenage love interest and quintessential good guy Atlas Corrigan. For Baldani, who also directs the film, the role of Ryle sees him as the quintessential ‘romance novel’ lead, a rich, successful, unbelievably shredded and good-looking neurosurgeon who’s almost too good to be true, and in this case, he is. It’s a brave choice for Baldoni to take on such a repugnant character, as we see how dangerous and abusive Ryle truly is as the picture moves forward, and he needs to be commended as an actor for such a choice. Then there’s rising heartthrob Brandon Sklenar as Atlas, Lily’s teenage crush, and whom her love ultimately saved him when he needed it, and he’s the man she needs in her life when things get too dark, and he proves to be the quintessential good man.
It Ends With Us is a film that delves into intense emotions and serious subject matter. Driven by its characters and story, it captivates the audience and evokes strong emotions. It’s rare to find bold romantic films or serious dramas in cinemas nowadays, but when they’re done right, they can have a powerful impact on audiences, as is the case with It Ends With Us. The film also appeals to the senses with its vibrant visuals, use of light and colour, and a moving score by Rob Simonsen and Duncan Blickenstaff that completely immerses the viewer.
The feelings are immediate and full in It Ends With Us, and this picture encourages its audience to understand that we are neither bound by our past nor present but that our future is our own to choose and that new life can bloom wherever we look. It’s a heartfelt and stirring journey that examines how love can heal all in the end, and audiences who witness this picture will need to wipe away the tears.
Image: Sony Pictures