From Jeremy Kibler

A film about the cycle of abuse starring beautiful people would seem like a hard sell. It still is, but Colleen Hoover’s 2016 book is a best-seller and receives a surprisingly nuanced treatment with director Justin Baldoni’s It Ends with Us. Not some cheap, insipid soap opera hinging on a love triangle, this is a mature and beautifully acted romantic drama that mostly avoids melodramatic soapiness.

Blake Lively, looking glamorous as only Blake Lively can, gives an emotionally stunning performance as Lily Bloom (yes, the film knows the name is silly). After not having the words to give her late father’s eulogy, Lily starts a new life of independence in Boston and opens up her own flower shop. Between her business and meeting a charming, sexy neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni), Lily’s life gets completely upended when their intense flirtation becomes more serious and reminiscent of her own parents’ tempestuous marriage. To add extra complication, Lily’s first love, Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), unexpectedly enters her life again.

Above all else, It Ends with Us is a terrific showcase for Blake Lively. The role of Lily asks so much from Lively, who has to be guarded but vulnerable, and also smart and funny. During Lily and Ryle’s meet-cute on the roof of his apartment building, Lively and Baldoni have scorching chemistry with each other. Directing himself, Baldoni is up to the task of making Ryle charismatic and desirable but also problematic with a short fuse. 

A well-cast Isabela Ferrer is also very good, laying the groundwork as teenage Lily. The part of Atlas is a little underwritten, but Alex Neustaedter and Brandon Skelenar imbue him with a modesty and decency that make Atlas appealing. Jenny Slate is adorable as ever as Lily’s first employee, who also happens to be Ryle’s sister. Towards the end of the film, Slate perfectly delivers one of the wisest, most beautifully written pieces of dialogue (you’ll know it when you hear it). 

The screenplay by Christy Hall could have delved deeper into Lily’s complicated history with her abusive father, but there are so many grace notes to make up for it. There’s real generosity in the writing of most of the characters, never painting them purely as one-note villains or helpless victims. 

This being Baldoni’s third feature film following cystic fibrosis YA romance Five Feet Apart, Baldoni is very shrewd in what is shown and what is better left to the imagination, and when to just leave the actors to their own devices without a musical score of violins. The film is also slickly photographed, and Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You” and Cigarettes After Sex’s “Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby” are effective music choices during the highs of Lily and Ryle’s relationship.

A slice of life that could have easily verged on melodrama but keeps itself in check, It Ends with Us concludes on a hopeful note that Lily Bloom deserves. The place where Lily finds herself is not only satisfying but well-earned.

Rating: 4/5

It Ends with Us hits theaters August 9th, 2024.

Follow Jeremy