Warning: This article contains spoilers for the movie and book “It Ends With Us”
Beloved by many and selling millions of copies around the world, Colleen Hoover has garnered an outstanding reputation and fanbase around her hit novel, “It Ends With Us.” After announcing the production and release date of the movie adaptation, many of her fans eagerly awaited to finally see this book come to life. Me? Not so much. As trailers and marketing for the movie were gradually released, I genuinely believed that this movie was finally going to depict the domestic abuse story in an accurate and sensitive portrayal. Instead, just like the book, the movie missed the mark on depicting the domestic violence aspect realistically, and the banter and romance in the movie felt very cringy and awkward.
The movie “It Ends With Us” tells the story of Lily Bloom’s love life, beginning with Lily (Blake Lively) running from her father’s funeral when her main love interest, Ryle (Justin Baldoni), meet each other during Ryle’s temper tantrum after a bad day. From the very beginning of the movie, I was already upset as the banter between the two of them was so painful to watch. Lily would randomly laugh at him for no reason and Ryle was dead set on wanting to sleep with her. They then parted ways and didn’t see each other for months, until one day when Lily finally fulfilled her lifelong dream of opening a flower shop. Miraculously, it just so happens that Lily’s only employee is Ryle’s sister, Allysa (Jenny Slate), and the two are finally brought back together after she brings Ryle to see where she works.
Fast forward, and they have been dating for about a year, when one morning, Ryle is making breakfast in the oven and Lily walks into the kitchen. After getting caught up in a makeout session, Lily notices that Ryle’s food is burning in the oven. Now what is about to happen was some of the worst writing I think I have ever seen. For some reason, despite being a literal neurosurgeon, Ryle decides to try and pull out the hot metal pan with his bare hands, getting burnt, swinging and hitting Lily in the eye. The situation is then played off as an accident and the two go along with their day. Later that evening, they get ready to go out to dinner with Ryle’s sister and her husband. At the restaurant, Lily recognizes her teenage love interest, Atlas (Brandon Sklenar). Atlas then notices the bruising around her eye and believes that Ryle is beating her, pulling her into the bathroom to confront her. After telling him that it’s a misunderstanding, she leaves the bathroom to find Ryle waiting outside. The two men then both throw a couple of punches, break some plates and pictures on the wall, until Atlas, who owns the restaurant, orders him to leave. This is the event that starts Ryle’s obsession with Atlas and his belief that Lily is cheating on him.
Lily and Ryle then get married after about another year of being together and Atlas comes to see her at the flower shop and gives her his number. As Lily is on the phone with her mom, she hears a loud crashing noise from the other room. She hangs up and finds Ryle sitting on the bed with broken glass everywhere. He said he found Atlas’ number in her phone case and thinks that she is hooking up with him. In a fit of rage, he tries to flee the situation and leave the apartment, but Lily follows him, trying to get him to stay. Lily steps in front of him at the top of the stairs, and Ryle “accidentally” pushes her down the stairs, landing on the bottom and splitting her forehead open. Lily then wakes up in his bed as he is consoling her, telling her it was all an accident.
In the movie, this scene plays out as an accident and doesn’t seem like abuse at all. This is what made the domestic abuse element of this movie very confusing. Everything was played out as an accident until after one situation, in which Ryle tries to force himself on her, does she finally realize that she is being abused. In the movie, it was shown as a flashback with scenes depicting her being abused, compared to scenes before being depicted as an accident. It was just a confusing storyline of her “realizing” that she was being abused, which was unlike the book, where she knows, but stays with him out of love. This could also have to do with the idiotic decision, created by Blake Lively, to try and make the story more “romantic” instead of focusing on domestic violence.
As you may be able to tell, I am deeply disturbed and taken aback by Hoover and her works. From her personal life regarding the situations revolving around her son, to the content and writing found in her books being sub par, I have never found Colleen Hoover to be deserving of her praise and fame. I understand that she is probably an amazing and loving person in real life, but I just don’t find her to be enjoyable as an author. That being said, even though I have lifelong beef with Hoover, this doesn’t mean I went into the movie hating it from the beginning. I actually was rooting for the movie to be produced and written in the way I believed the story and concepts deserved. But sadly, the movie fell flat and gave the same impact as the book, reassuring me even more of my stance on Colleen Hoover’s works.
