Note: The following article contains discussion of domestic violence.
Although mostly faithful to Colleen Hoover’s book, It Ends With Us‘ ending includes one key difference meant to soften the story’s most controversial storyline.
Starring Blake Lively, the movie follows Lily Bloom as she opens her own flower shop in Boston and meets the man of her dreams, neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (played by Jane the Virgin star Justin Baldoni, who also directs the film).
Lily and Ryle fall in love and get married – but another side of Ryle soon comes to the surface. Just like her mother, Lily sees herself trapped in an abusive relationship with a man she can’t help loving.
If you don’t know how the story ends, you might want to stop reading at this point, as major spoilers follow from the next paragraph onwards.
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The ending of the book and the movie are not that dissimilar, but there is one obvious omission.
In the book, Lily decides to ask Ryle for a divorce after giving birth to their daughter, Emerson, but she agrees to share custody. In the last scene, Lily drops the child with Ryle, showing how they are both on good terms for the sake of the baby.
Despite her concerns over his aggressive behaviour, Lily’s decision to keep Ryle in her life comes, as explained in the book, from seeing him taking care of his niece.
Lily sees redeemable qualities in Ryle. She doesn’t think he is a bad person, but a “person who does bad things”, so she doesn’t want to prevent him from being a father regardless of what he’s done to her.
In fact, Ryle’s short temper is explained (even dangerously justified) through a traumatic childhood incident, in which he accidentally shot his brother with a gun and killed him.
Since then, Ryle has had some serious anger issues. When talking about his most aggressive episodes, it almost sounds as if he becomes a monster detached from the man and this is all a treatable disease.
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Needless to say, this has been the most contentious aspect of Hoover’s book since its publication back in 2016.
Even if Lily decides to leave Ryle at the end, which is a positive outcome, many readers have questioned Hoover’s decision to redeem him at all through the decision to end the book by confirming that they’re co-parenting their child.
It seems that this controversy was taken into consideration for the movie, as a key change has been made to the ending.
In the movie, Ryle is last seen in the hospital room where Lily gives birth and asks for a divorce. The adaptation decided to leave out the moment where Lily drops Emerson with her father and instead shows Lily’s mother taking care of the child at the park while Lily is reacquainted with Atlas (her childhood sweetheart).
With this change in the last scene of the movie, It Ends With Us manages to avoid the most problematic aspect of the story by simply ignoring it. To understand why all of this is problematic, it’s worth remembering Ryle’s actions in the story.
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Throughout their relationship, Ryle physically assaults Lily several times, including slapping her after a kitchen incident and pushing her down the stairs following a heated argument.
The worst incident, though, comes with a premeditated (and terrifying) sexual assault, which finally convinces Lily to abandon their home. The movie tones down this moment, but in the book, it’s a harrowing read that leaves no room for sympathy for Ryle.
Knowing this, the ending of the book came out as a shock for many readers. The movie decides to leave the question unanswered, neither confirming nor denying whether Ryle has any involvement in his daughter and Lily’s lives.
In an interview with The Wrap, director and star Justin Baldoni addressed this change and provided some explanations about the decision.
“In the original draft, we had a scene in the epilogue where we see Ryle dropping off their child to Lily, and they have a short conversation,” he explained.
“It was written in a way that showed that they’ve overcome a lot over the last two years. And I wasn’t fully comfortable with it.”
In the interview, the filmmaker added the team considered adding a brief section of dialogue at the end explaining that Ryle was in therapy. However, Baldoni ultimately decided that cutting him off entirely from the ending would be the most appropriate ending for the character.
“I don’t want to open up a can of worms and have a conversation about, you know, should a man like Ryle be allowed to co-parent? You know, what’s an acceptable amount of work that someone has to do in that situation? It was just way too much,” he added.
“The truth is, from our research and from our partners, we know that the majority of men go back to being abusers, and that’s the fact.
“And then it didn’t feel right to tell a story about a man who was a minority in that, because that wouldn’t be honoring the original intention of why we were trying to tell the story.”
Baldoni continued: “So the best ending for Ryle was to look at his wife and kid, and the life that he could have had, the life that he blew up, and to walk out the door and for us not see him again.
“And that was, for me, what felt the best in adapting the book and turning into a film is to say bye to him there.”
The director’s explanation addresses a long-standing complaint about Hoover’s book, and fixes a major controversy about the story.
However, by not confirming or denying Ryle’s parenting arrangement with Lily, all possibilities are open about the future of the story after It Ends With Us.
If the story on screen ends here, it’s a great change that will leave viewers thinking Ryle will never see his daughter again. But it’s also vague enough to allow a screen adaptation of the book’s sequel.
Following the success of the first book, Hoover wrote a follow-up in 2022, It Starts With Us, where Lily deals with this questionable parenting arrangement with Kyle while developing a relationship with Atlas. There are no plans to adapt this book for the screen at the moment, but Hoover is not opposed to it.
Regardless of what the future holds for the Hoover-verse on the big screen, it can only be a positive thing that the movie adaptation of It Ends With Us decided to right some wrongs from the original story. Or, at least, make it as if they never existed in the first place.
It Ends With Us is now out in cinemas.
If you’ve been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, organisations including Refuge (www.refuge.org.uk) and Women’s Aid (www.womensaid.org.uk) can provide further support and information. The 24-hour, freephone National Domestic Abuse Helpline is 0808 2000 247. The US National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), or text LOVEIS to 22522.
Deputy Movies Editor, Digital Spy
Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over seven years, mostly for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas.
Her work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema in the UK.
She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service.
During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world, and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She’s also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London.
Now based in the UK, Mireia joined Digital Spy in June 2023 as Deputy Movies Editor.