This is sacrilege coming off the keyboard of a movie critic, but “It Ends With Us” is a film that would be best experienced from the couch. Wait a few weeks for the Blake Lively flick to land on a streaming service. Rainy Sunday, pajamas, a scented candle, Ben & Jerry’s and, most vitally, no one around to judge you.
Because the romantic drama, directed by and co-starring Justin Baldoni, is not very good by most known metrics of quality. Although it concerns an ugly topic — domestic abuse — “Ends” tends to favor glam close-ups of its stunning actors to the real grit of its circumstances. The film is an adaptation of author Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel, beloved by women, and much of the often stilted dialogue is cribbed verbatim from the book.
The main character is named Lily Blossom Bloom (Lively) and, oh yes, she opens a flower shop. That name and decision are, thankfully, mocked by the movie. Does any of this read like a recipe for greatness? No.
Did I tear up multiple times? Absolutely. “It Ends With Us” is, despite its failings and indulgences, a highly emotional and absorbing couple of hours. Lively, doing some of her deepest work, plays a lost soul whose father has just died.
Because she witnessed dad regularly hit her mother (Amy Morton, a far better actress than this material allows), her relationship to him was complex. She can’t stomach delivering his eulogy. Lily, who dons outfits that Krusty the Clown might wear for a Vogue shoot, settles in Boston and, ever the free spirit, meets a hot neurosurgeon named Ryle (not a typo) on the roof of a luxury high-rise where she doesn’t live.
They flirt and flee. Later, in a Shonda Rhymes-style turn of events, Lily discovers Ryle is actually her new employee Allysa’s (Jenny Slate) brother and an outwardly perfect romance commences. But chiseled features and a magazine smile conceal a dark side of Ryle, and what started as a shiny aughts rom-com morphs into a shield-your-eyes cautionary tale of a crumbling, dangerous relationship.
The couple’s violent fights are hard to watch, but less chilling than they would be in reality. The mix of those two very different tones — glossy love and horrific clashes — borders on tacky. Baldoni finds a balance, though, and his film never slides into poor taste.
There’s even a bit of truth to how a woman in such a situation might delude herself using fantasy to distract from the cause of her pain. Indeed, Lily makes many excuses for Ryle until it becomes too much to bear. Hoover’s story also jumps back in time to Lily’s teenage years when she befriended a homeless teen called Atlas (these names) and fell in love with him.
In the present, a love triangle forms (older Atlas is played by Brandon Sklenar), fraught with jealousy and paranoia. And hope. All these intense, fateful developments can be soupy.
Some might call them manipulative. And yet I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t swept up in the highly concentrated dose of big feelings. Trust me, though.
“It Ends With Us” should start with an empty house and a pint of Mint Chocolate Cookie..
