Domestic violence is terrible and so too is It Ends with Us, a squishy drama that treats its serious subject with all the gravity and realism of a Hallmark Channel movie.
Director Justin Baldoni’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2016 best-selling novel (which became a phenomenon thanks to BookTok) strands Blake Lively in a story whose clichés and contrivances are as cheesy as its perspective is distorted and dangerous. Devoid of plausible characterizations, decision-making, and plotting, it’s a dud of epic proportions—literally, as its 130-minute runtime makes it feel like it’ll never end.
Lily Bloom (Lively) is a woman who loves flowers and dreams of owning a flower shop in Boston, and the fact that It Ends with Us has her talk about this ludicrous situation makes it no less silly. It is, however, emblematic of the subtlety of Baldoni’s film, which is filled with one groan-worthy and/or hoary element after another.
