Colleen Hoover’s novel It Ends with Us has been a slow-burn publishing phenomenon that no book group could avoid. Thanks to TikTok hype, even though it was published back in 2016, it has topped sales lists for the last couple of years. A film was probably inevitable – and what a glossy, dubious kettle of fish it is.
This slippery retelling of Hoover’s story packages up domestic violence to get the viewer tutting from the start, while it lures us through the courtship rituals in the bright lights of the big city. (Boston, here.)
We’re well ahead of budding florist Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) – even though she grew up in a household defined by her father’s violent rage – when it comes to spotting the abusive potential of her sudden new life partner. And yes, she’s called Lily Bloom, and she knows this is absurd.
We’re pre-warned by the way Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni, also the director) enters their first scene on a high rise rooftop, assuming he’s alone, and smashes a chair around in fury. His physique is the result of many, many narcissistic gym hours to sculpt a self-described identity as a “ripped neurosurgeon”. We know we’re ahead of Lily because, to be brutally honest, she spots none of the red flags.
Where this blind spot might come from is a totally fair question, but Christy Hall’s script fluffs the psychology big-time, selling its main character down the river. We don’t buy that she would make the same mistakes as her mother (Amy Morton) while giving her such a hard time for having made them.