On August 21st, “It Ends With Us” was officially released in theaters worldwide. The movie is a production inspired by the famous Colleen Hoover’s novel “It ends with us” that was published on February 26th, 2016.
The book and, subsequently, the movie follow the story of Lily Bloom, a young woman that moves to Boston to open her dream flowershop. There she meets Ryle Kincaid, a handsome young man whom she quickly falls in love with and starts dating. Unfortunately not everything goes as planned and what at first seemed like the perfect love story turns into a nightmare. In the book Hoover shows both lovers’ perspectives, and leads the reader through the difficult story of a relationship turned sour. The author delves into the theme of domestic abuse and how the protagonist, Lily, faces the reality of having to leave Ryle for her own good.
In the movie Lily is played by famous actress Blake Lively; she is sided by Justin Baldoni who is both the movie’s director and actor in the role of Ryle. Brandon Sklenar, on the other hand, plays Atlas Corrigan, Lily’s second love interest. To complete the main cast there is Jenny Slate as Allysa, Lily’s friend, Isabella Ferrer as the young Lily Bloom and Alex Neutsaedteras young Atlas.
Although the book is critically acclaimed and Colleen Hoover is one of the most famous modern American authors, when news got out of the production many expressed their disapproval loudly. This was due to a few snapshots of costume design and leaked scenes, that were published on social medias, that left the original readers of the book disappointed and feeling as if the production would not be at all faithful to the book. For example in some of the scenes divulged on the media, Blake Lively, who plays Lily, was seen giving “a poor perfomance” according to critics; since the movie is supposed to be a very emotional story, this strongly concerned those who where initially excited to see it.
Some backstage gossip also lead the viewers to believe that the script no longer had anything to do with the original novel and that it would have ruined the message Hoover had tried to convey: that sometimes it’s not worth holding on. Blake Lively, who is marreid to actor Ryan Reynolds, was blamed for some of the script changes, seeing as it was reported that in some instances the couple took initiative directing some scenes without the director’s approval. Blake also decided to take into her own hands the task of designing the costumes for Lily, giving birth to what many called terrible outfits.
Although the acting, directing and costume design already caused enough disapproval for Lively’s approach to the production, the biggest controversy sparked from the fact that she decided to use the press tour of the movie as a chance to promote her beauty business. Many fans disapproved this choice becuse the main theme of the story was abuse and Lively’s attitude towards the seriousness of the themes was considered inoppropriate.
So in the end, even before the actual release of the movie, the public opinion had already reached an agreement that it would have been bad. Against all odds though, the reviews after the release of the movie have been mixed and some have gone as far as to say it was a great movie. Some still stand on the opinion that it wasnt good at all and as of now the overall average for the audience rating is of 3.6 stars out of 5 with a 58% rate of rotten tomatoes.
