It Ends With Us
One of ‘Booktoks’ most famed books, It Ends With Us, by Colleen Hoover has been adapted to a movie format.. let’s talk about it. I’m going to begin by saying I have read this book, and the sequel ‘It Starts With Us’, so I am coming at the movie from an angle of knowing the story quite well.
We meet Lily Bloom (yes, that’s her name) who is opening a flower shop (yes, I am not lying). We see her meet Ryle, we see them have a meet cute, and fall in love over the course of a whirlwind few months. Unfortunately for Lily, her father’s actions towards her mother start to appear in her own home, as Ryle starts to domestically abuse her.
The film is beautifully shot. The set design, costumes, lighting and overall ‘vibe’ of the film is absolutely gorgeous. There were definitely some questionable decisions made around Blake Livelys (Lily) hair & costume, but overall I did feel like the book came to life sort of how I imagined it while reading. Cast performances from Jenny Slate (Allysa), Justin Baldoni (Ryle) and Brandon Sklenar (Atlas) were my favourites.
My gripes with this film is that the first 90 minutes focused on the ‘good’ times completely took time away from the serious theme of domestic violence throughout the rest of the film. It’s not a love story, and that’s what felt like was being pushed. Majority of scenes were millennial humour flirting between Lively & Baldoni, and I think anyone going into the film sans having read the book would have considered it a possible romcom to begin with.
It was sold out in my theatre, and the hype around the book over the last few years driven by the booktok community on TikTok show that there will be millions of people watch this, including those of a younger age (the book is on the Young Adults shelf in most bookstores). The film marketing should now be pushing support and guidance for those suffering of domestic violence.