Blake Lively‘s new romantic drama, It Ends with Us, has received mixed reviews from critics.
The movie stars the Gossip Girl alum, 36, as a floral designer named Lily Bloom, who falls in love with neurosurgeon Ryle (Justin Baldoni, who also directs the film), years after losing touch with her first love Atlas (Brandon Sklenar) after he joined the military.
But when Ryle’s violent outburst leads her to fear he may be an abusive partner, she turns to Atlas for help after they reconnect when she runs into him at a restaurant he works at.
The film, set to be released in theaters this Friday, is based on the best-selling romance novel It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover, which was a hit with readers after it was published in 2016.
However, the movie is far from a critical darling, as it currently holds a 61% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with a review from the The Independent calling it ‘sincere but completely ludicrous.’
Blake Lively’s, 36, new romantic drama, It Ends with Us, has received mixed reviews from critics; seen in a still with co-star and director Justin Baldoni
‘It Ends With Us tries to balance the realities of domestic violence inside a rom-com and a female-empowerment movie. All suffer in the process,’ writes Mark Kennedy from Associated Press.
‘The screenplay, by Daddio director Christy Hall, makes an effort with some early winking jokes that acknowledge the novel’s clichés. But the adaptation can’t be saved from the contrivance baked into the original text,’ adds Lovia Gyarkye from the Hollywood Reporter.
‘It’s not Lively’s fault that she’s so weakly defined as a character, but her performance still verges on vacuous, and Baldoni’s on overbearing,’ Daily Telegraph‘s Tim Robey quips.
Rolling Stone calls it the ‘Starbucks Latte of movies’ that’s ‘generic enough to hit the spot.’
However, Blake also received praise for her acting chops, with Variety’s Owen Gleiberman writing that she, ‘fills the screen with her acutely aware and slightly tremulous radiance.’
Meanwhile Emily Zemler from the Observer writes that the film, ‘has the potential to be soapy and overwrought, potentially veering into Lifetime territory. But Lively and her director/co-star Justin Baldoni refuse to let the movie be consumed by the melodramatic nature of the story.’
The Guardian’s Benjamin Lee writes, ‘It’s a plot of hackneyed soap tropes but there’s a real maturity to how it unfolds, a story of abuse that’s far less obvious than we’ve grown accustomed to, the details far knottier than some might be comfortable with. There are expected cliches but there are also many that are mercifully avoided too, the story not always conforming to type.’
‘It Ends With Us savors the trappings of a glossy love triangle: the banter, the flirting, the turbulence, the extravagant costumes,’ Amy Nicholson of The Washington Post writes. ‘The movie has to cheat a bit to get at the complexity of Hoover’s book.’
The film currently holds a 61% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with a review from the The Independent calling it ‘sincere but completely ludicrous’
‘It Ends With Us tries to balance the realities of domestic violence inside a rom-com and a female-empowerment movie. All suffer in the process,’ writes Mark Kennedy from Associated Press
‘It’s not Lively’s fault that she’s so weakly defined as a character, but her performance still verges on vacuous,’ Daily Telegraph’s Tim Robey quips; Lively seen with Jenny Slate
Rolling Stone calls it the ‘Starbucks Latte of movies’ that’s ‘generic enough to hit the spot’
However, Blake also received praise for her acting chops, with Variety’s Owen Gleiberman writing that she, ‘fills the screen with her acutely aware and slightly tremulous radiance’
‘A child of domestic abuse, Hoover writes with painful intimacy about Lily’s struggle to claw free from her past. Baldoni shifts some of that turmoil to the audience, with editors Oona Flaherty and Robb Sullivan cutting key scenes so that, like Lily, we don’t know what to believe.’
Nicholson went on to state that ‘even bouncing off male leads who are more pinball bumpers than dimensional characters,’ Lively gave a ‘great performance as a headstrong, sensible woman who struggles to consider herself a victim.’
The trailer for the film as released in May.
Blake’s good friend Taylor Swift even lends her voice to the trailer – her 2020 song, My Tears Ricochet, serves as the soundtrack for the teaser.
The trailer begins with Lily meeting Ryle at her new flower shop, before the duo hit it off and strike up a romantic relationship.
The duo go on a date and it doesn’t take long for things to get steamy.
‘I want to see you again,’ Ryle tells Lily. ‘Now you see me,’ she jokes.
‘You know what I mean,’ he replies. But then a darker side of Ryle emerges.
During a tense conversation, Ryle is shown standing up and smashing an object into the floor.
‘I’m so sorry,’ he tenderly tells her afterwards.
But then, Atlas returns. Lily is shown running into him, as flashbacks of their relationship as kids flash before the screen.
‘I still remember the day I saw you in the window,’ Atlas muses. ‘Yeah, we were just kids then,’ Lily replies.
The movie stars the Gossip Girl alum as a floral designer named Lily Bloom, who falls in love with neurosurgeon Ryle (Baldoni, who also directs the film), years after losing touch with her first love Atlas (Brandon Sklenar) after he joined the military; seen with Sklenar
But when Ryle’s violent outburst leads her to fear he may be an abusive partner, she turns to Atlas for help after they reconnect when she runs into him at a restaurant he works at.
Noticing the man she is holding hands with, Atlas asks, ‘Is that your guy?’
‘Yeah. That’s Ryle,’ she replies.
Ryle seems suspicious of Lily as he asks her at one point, ‘Do you love him?’
‘I love you,’ she assures him.
‘That wasn’t my question,’ Ryle replies.
Lily poses a powerful question to Ryle: ‘If one day you had a daughter, what would you say to her?
‘She came to you and said the person she loved was hurting her? What would you say to her?’
Over voiceover, she muses, ‘As hard as this choice is. We break the pattern. Or the pattern breaks us.’
It Ends With Us is set for release on August 9.
Hoover previously revealed It Ends With Us was ‘the hardest book I’ve ever written’ as it is based on the relationship between her parents.
As of 2019, the book sold over one million copies worldwide and was translated into over 20 different languages.
The book received another surge in popularity in late 2021 thanks to TikTok’s #BookTok community.
Since 2019, the book had been published in 43 languages. It Ends With Us was the top-selling print book in 2022, remaining on the New York Times Best Seller List for over 90 weeks.
Hoover is the best-selling author in the United States with over 20 million books sold, with her sequel to It Ends With Us, dubbed It Starts With Us, published in October 2022.
It Ends With Us is set for release on August 9
The film was the top-selling print book in 2022, remaining on the New York Times Best Seller List for over 90 weeks
Blake and her husband Ryan Reynolds — whose superhero movie Deadpool & Wolverine became the highest-grossing R-rated film ever, after earning $97 million over the weekend — are set to go head-to-head at the box office this weekend with their respective films.
Deadpool & Wolverine, which is in its third week of release, is projected to take in $50 million during the timeframe amid its red-hot run in theaters, Deadline reported.
Earlier this week, the Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster – which costars Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin and Matthew Macfadyen – achieved another milestone in being the second film of the year (after Inside Out 2) to surpass the domestic total of $400 million after raking in $12.2 million Monday, according to the outlet.
It Ends with Us has kicked off with strong presales and estimates, according to Deadline, with the National Research Group estimating it makes $23 million.
Lively’s past highest box office openings include 2011’s Green Lantern (which costarred Reynolds) with $53.1 million; 2010’s The Town with $23.8 million; and 2018’s A Simple Favor with $16 million.