Title: It Ends With Us
Describe This Movie In One Lethal Weapon Quote:
RIGGS: I think I saw this place on Lifetimes of the Rich and Shameless.
Brief Plot Synopsis: Never trust a guy with six-pack abs.
Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 2 Ayn Rands out of 5.
Tagline: “We break the pattern or the pattern breaks us.”
Better Tagline: “How bad could things possibly be in a bucolic town like … ‘Plethora’, Maine?”
Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) grew up watching her father abuse her mother and wondering why Mom never left. In the present day, she runs a successful flower shop and has a budding (heh) relationship with handsome neurosurgeon Ryle (Justin Baldoni). This cozy arrangement is soon disrupted by the reappearance of Lily’s childhood love Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), as well as Ryle starting to exhibit behaviors disturbingly reminiscent of her father.
“Critical” Analysis: Nearly one in four women will be the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime, a crime which affects 12 million women and men every year.
It’s a deadly serious issue, in other words. And while we should applaud any mainstream movie that tackles the subject, we should also continue to hold out hope that Justin Baldoni’s overstuffed adaptation of the Colleen Hoover bestseller won’t be the final word.
For starters, the tone is all over the place. Sunlight-dappled forests and swelling ballads are at odds with Lily’s traumatic memories, as (director, and producer, and actor) Baldoni seems to want to have it both ways. Unfortunately, the traditional Lifetime Channel-style upper middle class romantic trappings overwhelm what ought to be the film’s central message.
Baldoni and screenwriter Christy Hall (Daddio) at least avoid falling into the trap of portraying Ryle (what is with these names?) as purely despicable. He’s not great, Bob. Even if his character does undertake what could charitably be called an “unlikely” personal reckoning after his abusive actions.
And that’s the problem, I guess. Ryle experiences an epiphany at the end after meekly giving Lily her space after assaulting her. There are no threats or stalking or other outbursts, just an abashed willingness to accept his faults. Don’t get me wrong, it’s preferable to what many (most?) women experience in the real world, and it gives us our happy ending, but it’s too pat. Too forced.
Maybe the intention was to deliver something more palatable to mainstream audiences. But in softening the message, Lively and company aren’t doing anyone any favors. And by having literally every character in the movie act in the noblest fashion possible, they’re dangerously misrepresenting reality.
Whatever your issues with the source material, Hoover at least tried to dig into the generational cycle of abuse. Baldoni wants to couch all that in rom-com trappings, diluting the impact and ending up with something more mawkish than moving.
Ask A 15-Year Old:
RFTED: What is “it” that ends with us?
15YO: The cycle of abuse.
RFTED: Oh, this should be fun.
It Ends With Us is in theaters today.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
