Courtesy of Sony Pictures

It Ends With Us starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni is based on Colleen Hoover’s bestselling book.

REVIEW

I’m not sure when my personal dislike of everything Colleen Hoover began — perhaps it was when TikToks of people trying to persuade me to buy her books began flooding my For You page, Or maybe it was when I entered bookstores and was suddenly surrounded by copies of “Verity” and “Ugly Love.” 

I would say I wasn’t influenced by all the media hype, but I’m an impressionable teenager… So I read some of her writing. And hated it.

I disliked her writing style, her plot choices, her oddly written characters with corny names, her straightforward and repetitive language… I could go on.

So, you can imagine my dismay when I discovered that there would be a movie adaptation of her most popular book, “It Ends With Us.” 

You probably have seen the movie – and, more than that, heard about it. The film has been so dominated by the controversy surrounding cast members and its promotion that it’s hard to speak about the movie separated from it, but I’ll try. (Spoiler: I fail.).

“It Ends With Us” follows 23-year-old Lily Blossom Bloom (Blake Lively), the owner of a flower shop (not on the nose at all, Colleen), as she navigates an abusive relationship with neurosurgeon Ryle Siegfried Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) and a renewed connection with a childhood crush, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar).

From my perspective, the movie is poorly made. The scenes are shot uncreatively and between the uncomfortable makeout scenes and cringy dialogue, there is little to like. 

The costuming was another glaringly obvious flaw. It isn’t that the outfits misrepresented the characters, but the clothing just looked crowded and sloppy — outfits that literally no one would wear in real life. Some fans even thought Lily’s outfits were an elaborate prank.

Blake Lively’s performance didn’t move me emotionally at all. Her acting felt more like she was just doing what she was told rather than connecting with Lily in an original and nuanced way.

All hate aside, not everything about the movie was awful.

Besides the soundtrack, my favorite part of the movie had to be Baldoni as Ryle — he did a fantastic job portraying Ryle’s character as charismatic but with a manipulative and abusive side. 

But even Baldoni’s mindful work couldn’t keep the film from being overshadowed by the surplus of drama.

The plot consistently revolves around an abusive relationship and other incredibly sensitive topics, yet how was the movie marketed?

With Lively telling us, “Grab your friends, wear your florals, and head out to see it!”

There were no warnings of violent content before the movie or in the marketing, nor were there any resources for domestic violence survivors or witnesses, from the movie or from Lively specifically. In fact, Lively spent an inappropriate amount of the press tour promoting her hair care brand instead of acknowledging the serious themes of the movie.

Lively has been attacked in the media recently, not just for this press tour, but also for an interview from 2016 that has been circulating. Lively made an insensitive comment to the interviewer, Kjersti Flaa, who happened to be infertile. Flaa even went as far as to title the video “The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job.”

This recovered slip up has shone a light on Lively’s inconsiderate behavior towards others, garnering no sympathy from the public.

The tone-deaf marketing of the movie has led to backlash in the media — however, director and star Baldoni wasn’t blamed. Why has he been spared?

Well, Baldoni had taken the most direct approach in marketing the film as it should have been, asking the question, “Why do men harm?” His direction sparked controversy with his fellow cast mates, including, reportedly, with Lively.

It appears that the two have stopped appearing in interviews together entirely, and many cast and crew members have claimed the two disliked each other due to their contrasting approaches.

Stories including mature and upsetting themes like domestic violence should be handled properly with survivors and current victims in mind, as well as conveying the emotion of the story. If the movie was less romantic and the actors handled promotion delicately, I most likely would have enjoyed it more than I did.

Overall, the book and movie weren’t really appealing to me, but what I found most tasteless was the way the cast, lead and author handled the topics in the movie.

In short, “It Ends With Us” should have ended sooner.