It Ends with Us

Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel is given a soapy make-over in a misjudged melodrama riddled with improbabilities.

Fifty Shades of Givenchy: Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively
Photo by Nicole Rivelli, Image courtesy of Sony Pictures

God knows, the multiplex of late has been starved of films dealing with human relationships. But this? What can Blake Lively have been thinking? The strapline on the theatrical poster sums up the theme perfectly: “We love. We break. We pick up the pieces.” And, to be fair, the final ten minutes tender a pay-off that reflects the hurt at the heart of the hoopla. But it’s a long wait. And Justin Baldoni’s film is a phony treatment of a deeply problematic subject, the details of which are, at least, not readily obvious.

The major shortcoming is the script, in particular the dialogue. The characters do not seem to be talking to each other – they appear to be explaining stuff to the audience. When Lily Bloom (Blake Lovely) arrives to attend her father’s funeral in her hometown of Plethora, Maine, her mother (Amy Morton) reminds her that she’s there for her father’s funeral. The scriptwriter Christy Hall (Daddio) is too keen to let us know what is going on, even though her characters conceal vital information from each other for long passages of time.

After the funeral, at which Lily cannot find one nice thing to say about her father (clutching a blank napkin with only the numbers one to five scrawled on it), she returns to Boston. Improbably, she meets Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) while perched on the precipitous rooftop of the apartment block where he lives. Following the preceding commercials, it feels like we are still watching an ad for L'Oréal, thanks largely to the glutinous pop songs scattered across the soundtrack (Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Birdy, Lewis Capaldi). Lily and Ryle immediately divulge their deepest secrets to each other – as two wildly attractive people will do when they meet cute – and we discover that she wants to open up a flower shop (she is, after all, called Lily Blossom Bloom). Ryle, meanwhile, announces that he is a brain surgeon. As we fail to catch him at work during the next two hours, we have to take his word for it, although I had my doubts. He also has the sculptured body of a male model, but we never see him in the gym, either. Lily, meanwhile, finds the perfect location for her shop (Lily Bloom’s) on a busy street in the affluent neighbourhood of Back Bay. Improbably, Ryle’s sister Allysa (Jenny Slate) is the first person to apply for a job there, even though she hates flowers. Who would have thunk it?

It’s hard to believe that Boston has a population of over four million, as Lily’s circle of intimates are almost incestuous in their proximity. It might have helped had someone occasionally piped up with, “what are the chances?” Of course, there’s a major backstory, too, and multiple flashbacks, both romantic and domestic. A second writer might have provided some variation to the dialogue, as different characters are caught using exactly the same idioms. And besides the litany of implausibilities, all the endless backlit kissing, the penetrating close-ups and the loving cityscapes do tend to keep the viewer at arm’s length from the emotions on screen. In spite of her sincerity, Blake Lively seems miscast as Lily (she looks disconcertingly like Julianne Moore here), although Isabela Ferrer as the younger Lily is something of a find. Jenny Slate is good, too, as is Brandon Sklenar as the improbably named Atlas Corrigan, Boston’s most handsome restaurateur.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj, Kevin McKidd, Amy Morton, Alex Neustaedter, Isabela Ferrer, Brandon Sklenar, Robyn Lively. 

Dir Justin Baldoni, Pro Alex Saks, Jamey Heath and Christy Hall, Ex Pro Justin Baldoni, Todd Black and Colleen Hoover, Screenplay Christy Hall and (uncredited) Ryan Reynolds, Ph Barry Peterson, Pro Des Russell Barnes, Ed Oona Flaherty and Robb Sullivan, Music Rob Simonsen and Duncan Blickenstaff, Costumes Eric Daman. 

Columbia Pictures/Wayfarer Studios/Saks Picture Company-Sony Pictures.
130 mins. USA. 2024. UK and US Rel: 9 August 2024. Cert. 15.