Anyone still wondering whether Blake Lively is a genuine movie star need look no farther than It Ends With Us, a gleaming romantic drama that succeeds largely because the actress is so compelling. The film, based on a novel by Colleen Hoover, has the potential to be soapy and overwrought, potentially veering into Lifetime territory. But Lively and her director/co-star Justin Baldoni refuse to let the movie be consumed by the melodramatic nature of the story, which has been adapted for the screen by Christy Hall.
|
IT ENDS WITH US ★★★ (3/4 stars) |
Lively plays Lily Bloom, a charismatic young woman with a quirky fashion sense and Bohemian red hair that is impossible not to envy. We meet this aspirational-yet-relatable protagonist as she returns home to Maine for her father’s funeral, an event that rattles her high-strung mother Jenny (Amy Morton) but seems to shake Lily in a different way. Lily can’t brings herself to deliver the expected eulogy and she hurries back to Boston as quickly as possible. She has a chance rooftop encounter with hot neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni) and sparks fly, but he’s looking for casual and she’s looking for commitment. In the months that follow, Lily opens an artful flower shop, Lily Bloom’s, with the help of her new BFF Allysa (Jenny Slate, who makes everything better). By happenstance, Allysa’s brother is none other than Ryle.
Lily’s whirlwind romance with Ryle is juxtaposed with flashback scenes to her teenage years, when she befriended and fell in love with a boy named Atlas (Alex Neustaedter). The younger Lily, played by Isabela Ferrer, also witnessed her father abusing her mother, which explains her reluctance to remember her father at his funeral. In the present, by yet even more convenient happenstance, Lily, Ryle and Jenny dine at a new Boston restaurant, Root, that adult Atlas (Brandon Sklenar) has opened. The reconnection is unexpected and sends Lily spiraling, even though she’s clearly in love with Ryle. But all is not well in paradise as red flags wave at every turn of Lily’s relationship with Ryle, who is dealing with his own childhood trauma. Lily finds herself caught between Atlas, who wants to prevent her from following in her mother’s footsteps, and Ryle, whose angry outbursts can’t continue to be forgiven.
The story spans several years—we know time passes because Allysa and her husband Marshall (Hasan Minhaj) get pregnant and have a baby—and Baldoni does his best to ensure there’s enough momentum without skipping the intimacy of getting to know someone. But Lily’s courtship and eventual marriage to Ryle does feel somewhat rushed and neither seems to know much about the other person. Still, Lively is magnetic as Lily, a woman struggling to see her own experiences with clarity. The script, like the novel, ultimately allows her to stand up for and save herself, an impactful narrative choice that certainly could affect viewers in similar circumstances. Baldoni never villainizes Ryle, another key choice, but Lily’s father, played briefly by Grey’s Anatomy star Kevin McKidd, is far more one-dimensional.
It’s a dark subject matter and it’s one that was personal to Hoover when she wrote the novel. Baldoni respects that in his direction, which is glossy and sun-soaked but also sincere. The camera loves Lively and her ability to communicate a multitude of emotions in close-up is a strength of the film (she’s come a long way since her Gossip Girl days). Some of story is sensationalistic, including the revelation of what happened to Ryle as a kid, but that’s not the fault of a filmmaker working off heavily dramatic source material. A lot of boxes are ticked here—a protagonist who runs a flower shop, a love interest who is a chef, the ridiculous character names, Lively’s impeccable-but-quirky wardrobe and hair, a Taylor Swift song that plays at the exact right emotional moment—and It Ends With Us could have easily felt completely contrived. It’s a credit to Baldoni, Lively and their collaborators that it doesn’t. And, of course, there’s a sequel to adapt next.
