It Ends with Us Movie Review

It Ends with Us (2024)

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Written by: Christy Hall (screenplay), Colleen Hoover (book)
Directed by: Justin Baldoni
Starring: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Jenny Slate, Brandon Sklenar, Hasan Minhaj, Kevin McKidd
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
When a woman's first love suddenly reenters her life, her relationship with a charming but abusive neurosurgeon is upended and she realizes she must make an impossible choice for her future.

Verdict
This movie wants to confront domestic abuse, but doesn't want to go deep enough to actually address it. Most of this movie is trying to string along dialog and scenes between depictions of abuse. It's not an easy topic, and we expect it to escalate. This resolves so easily that it doesn't feel realistic at all. We nearly reach the point where this reveals the abuser for who he truly is before it gives him excuse after excuse. The only thing saving this from being a terrible romance movie is the underlying message, but the movie fumbles that so completely. This should show all the subtle ways an abuser can manipulate a victim and it doesn't. Even after what little we've seen, it's bewildering to provide an abuser with so many excuses.
Skip it.

Review
Lily (Blake Lively) comes home to attend her father's funeral. She fumbles the eulogy due to what we assume is grief. Somehow she ends up on the roof an apartment building. I don't know how'd she access it if she doesn't live there. She meets neurosurgeon Rile (Justin Baldoni) up there, and this movie is trying hard for a meet cute, but this just isn't how people talk. It feels like Fifty Shades of Grey, a story that's fantasy first with dialog forced to fill in the gaps.

Rile is pushy, but that's often how movies depict men. I don't know if it's that or the movie wants us to excuse it because he's a handsome doctor. Then again, society excuses people like that often, willing to look the other way the more prestigious someone is.

Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni play Lily, Rile

The whole movie takes on a more sinister tone with the complaints Lively made about Baldoni during filming. While he denied the claims, text messages surfaced that he hired a public relations firm that agreed to attack Lively on social media to undermine her claims.

Lily opens a flower shop and on the first day meets Allysa (Jenny Slate), a rich woman that wants a job because she's bored. It just so happens to be this specific flower shop minutes after Lily has taken ownership and Allysa is Rile's sister. That creates the pretext for Rile to be at the shop often. It's a lot of plot contrivance to make this work. Rile has never seriously dated, but he wants to date Lily. Otherwise, how would this movie continue.

Lily happened to make a comment about her homeless first boyfriend Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), and the story is deeper than that. It just so happens that he happens to be in the same town which creates a rift between Lily and Rile. The contrivances know no bounds.

You can see the way Rile manipulates Lily, and that's the most competent part of this movie. The rest of it is trying to link those moments together, and it doesn't know how to get there. I was curious to see how this would develop and reveal Rile. Half way in, the closer they get the more he lets his guard down and reveals he's violent. His behavior is something that builds slowly and gets progressively worse, but the movie doesn't really explore it.

Justin Baldoni, Jenny Slate, Blake Lively play Rile, Allysa, Lily

Rile is always pushing Lily past what's she's comfortable. This could and should have been better. It has a message lost in the deficiencies of the story. Allysa readily accepts Lily's revelations about Rile, and she should either be skeptical at first before finally realizing the truth or have told Lily about her concerns much earlier.

Lily also should have wrestled with reporting Rile, not wanting to tarnish his reputation despite the risk posed to herself. This movie completely undermines his responsibility and gives him excuses. Lily finally confronts him and his reaction is muted. I expected rage. Where is the shot where he checks who else is in the room to determine how to react and how much to abuse Lily? His response is calm and logical which doesn't fit. This movie wants to confront domestic abuse but doesn't want to go deep enough to actually address it. This should show the escalation of his abuse, their attempts to work through it, and going to therapy which Rile would use to weaponize against Lily. I can't say I know much about the patterns of abuse, and I certainly don't have any first hand knowledge, but I seem to know more than the people involved with this movie, at least more than what they put on screen. I don't know if the movie blunted the message to be more marketable or just didn't want to get too depressing.