Movie adaptations of popular novels are a staple of Hollywood cinema though they rarely seem to do the source material proper justice. Colleen Hoover’s novel, IT ENDS WITH US, has been hugely successful since it was released in 2016, selling over one million copies worldwide and having been translated into more than twenty languages. It has also spawned a sequel, “It Starts With Us”, which became the publisher’s most pre-ordered book of all time. It’s no surprise, then, that someone would want to turn the story into a movie and that someone is actor-director-producer Justin Baldoni (TV’s JANE THE VIRGIN).

Just as the aptly named Lily Bloom (Blake Lively, A SIMPLE FAVOR) is preparing to open up her florist shop in Boston, she’s visited by the bubbly Allysa (Jenny Slate, EEAAO), who is looking for a job. The two women bond and get to work getting the shop ready for business. Days later, Allysa is visited by her brother Ryle (Baldoni), a neurosurgeon whom Lily met by chance sometime earlier. Lily and Ryle were immediately attracted to each other back then but nothing happened as Ryle had to leave to do emergency surgery. With the sparks still flying between them, they begin to have a relationship that sees Lily eventually moving into Ryle’s swank condo. Everything is going well for Lily until one day it doesn’t. Ryle has a mishap in their kitchen and gives Lily a black eye for taking it lightly. Lily, whose mother was a victim of domestic violence, is sure this is different but it’s not. Ryle continues to react violently against Lily when things don’t go his way, and that includes discovering that Lily has reconnected with her teenage sweetheart, Atlas (Brandon Sklenar, EMILY THE CRIMINAL), who has become an up-and-coming restaurateur in Boston. Because of course he has.

I’ll start with the low hanging fruit first. What’s up with these names — Ryle and Atlas… and Ryle and Alyssa’s brother’s name, Emerson? My eyes can only roll back inside my head so far before it starts to hurt.

I’ll admit to not having read Hoover’s book, nor do I have any interest in doing so after watching this movie. I’m more than a bit surprised that the subject of domestic violence is treated so gingerly in 2024 as this story does. I wouldn’t expect a movie where we get to watch Ryle beat the crap out of Lily but, at the same time, I would expect the story to delve deeper into Lily’s conflicting emotions on her abuse more than it does. I get that Hoover and screenwriter Christy Hall (DADDIO) want to convey that children who witness domestic violence often become either victims or perpetrators of such abuse in their adulthood, hence the book and movie’s title. However, this is a serious subject that deserves more than a Hallmark treatment and a whole lot of clunky dialogue.

Baldoni clearly bit off more than he could chew here and there has been plenty of press about alleged “creative differences” between him and Lively with some reports saying that Mr. Lively, aka Ryan Reynolds, rewrote the rooftop scene and even got his DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE film editor, Shane Reid, involved to recut the film. While Baldoni and Lively have been less than bosom buddies while promoting the film, at least neither of them is spitting on the other one while in public. Nevertheless, Baldoni, who holds the option to the book’s sequel has said that if that film does go ahead, he’d be happy to let Lively direct it. In other words, “Let’s see if you can do any better.”

Off-screen drama aside, many people will find IT ENDS WITH US to their liking and indeed the film has already taken in over US$325 million at the box office off a production budget of just $25 million. That latter number is surprisingly low leading me to suspect that both Baldoni and Lively took points rather than a salary. If that’s the case, bravo to both of them.

IT ENDS WITH US opens in Hong Kong cinemas tomorrow (September 18th).

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