Cinematic Integrity Ends With It Ends With Us

Even before It Ends With Us was released, the gossip surrounding its promotion, the alleged drama that happened behind the scenes during production, and the way Hollywood set it up as the next big romantic comedy blockbuster were forewarnings that told me the film wasn’t going to be great. Next time I’ll listen to my instincts and just not see any film that tries to hide its terrible quality behind glossy promotions. 

The film is based on the book of the same name by Colleen Hoover. The book wasn’t extraordinary as I found the quality of its writing and narrative average, but it did attempt to tackle a serious issue — domestic abuse and did mostly treat its characters with sensitivity. I figured that the film would not be excellent, but expected that with Blake Lively at the helm, playing the main character – Lily Bloom, I’d at least see an interesting performance. Despite various criticisms of her skirting over and treating the film’s serious material too lightly while promoting the film,  I expected Lively to delve deeper into the psychology of her character and the traumatic experiences she faces in the film itself. I expected a mediocre, even bad film. What I didn’t expect was that the film would be downright catastrophic. 

I understand that the film may not have the strongest source material to begin with as the book’s narrative also rushes several parts of Lily’s journey from a victim of domestic abuse to a survivor.  But when you are creating something for the big screen about domestic abuse using a story that has touched several people, there is the basic responsibility of  making sure the film handles its subject matter with some level of dignity and honesty. The film touches on every aspect of its story so lightly, that it fails to add any depth, any nuance to general human experiences beyond the abuse.

Not only was the direction flawed, but the acting was subpar as well. Blake Lively’s Lily doesn’t possess much of the sharpness that made the original character somewhat compelling in the book . The male lead of the film, the guy Lily falls in love with – Ryle, is played by Justin Baldoni (who also directs the film). His acting is mostly rigid throughout the entire movie which brings the overall quality down significantly. A lot of the story hinges on Ryle being charming. In the books, he is introduced as a mysterious, but overall charming love interest which is why when the relationship turns abusive it is all the more shocking. But Baldoni’s Ryle is all wry smiles and flat darkness that seems vaguely sinister. I think this a big misstep because one of the main epiphanies the reader has later in the book is that Ryle might not be as great as he seems. The whole point of making Ryle charming was, I think, to show  that anyone you know can suddenly reveal dark aspects of their personality. This is why domestic abuse can happen to anyone and is so prevalent. Hoover had made Ryle’s character charming on purpose so that the story starts off as an intriguing romance with dark hints embedded here and there before transforming completely  into something else. 

Not only is Baldoni’s Ryle unappealing as a character from the start, but his relationship with Lily is quickly rushed and pivotal moments of conversation are missed. Of course, I wouldn’t expect the film to be able to capture every conversation in the book. But what irked me was that it almost jumped immediately to sex scenes and didn’t give the audience enough time to like Ryle as a character, as then the impact of his true personality being revealed would have hit harder. To be fair, the first time he is abusive is shown in an interesting manner  as it is not until the climax that Lily realizes she was abused due to the scene  being shot from her perspective and presumably her imperfect memory where she faintly remembers an accident, but not him striking her.  As a result, as viewers, we feel her confusion with her whilst she is being gaslighted. Her unreliable memory becomes our reality as viewers and creates a harrowing experience in which we almost have a first-hand experience of her anguish.  However, even this breath of subtlety which could have saved the film is spoiled by Lily claiming within the first scene of the film that she is an “unreliable narrator”. This is such an unusual phrasing and so in the face that for those who are not already familiar with the story, it probably ruined the entire plot or gave them cause to mistrust Lily’s point of view from the start. This again causes the story to lose momentum and impact as it was unable to retain any of the crucial mystery or shock factor. Addition

ally Lively and Baldoni had very little chemistry and so most of their earlier scenes before the relationship turned abusive were too awkward and painful to watch. I actually liked the scenes with the younger actors showing a young Lily and Atlas (her other love interest) because they had a raw honesty and simplicity that the rest of the film lacked. The fact that I liked the flashbacks more than the present in the film, which was the majority of the film, is a clear indication of how terrible the film was. 

However, leaving these artistic criticisms aside, my main complaint about the film was regarding its simplistic treatment of abuse. Had it tried to show the issue in an honest light I might have been able to overlook some of its artistic flaws. But it just didn’t have that integrity in its vision because it whitewashed and Hollywoodized the entire topic. The film just generalized a few elements of a story and made it into a flat, money-making narrative in which everything  messy or honest is quickly tidied up to make way for  a neat little moral or takeaway with no real depth.  The arc of Lily’s recovery is a great example of this lazy direction.  Blake’s Lily is shown to be disturbed and confused and in pain for very little time before Atlas (her first love)  takes care of her for one night and says one thing that is encouraging. Suddenly, she is shown to feel hopeful again and take control away from Ryle. In reality, abusive experiences are extremely hard to recover from and I had hoped the film would improve on the book and explore more about Lily’s mental health as she separates from Ryle. But it doesn’t do that. Instead everything is tied up neatly with a pretty bow towards the end without any nuances being even hinted at, let alone explored. 

The film could have done so much more, but also even if it had attempted to show just a little more emotional intelligence it might have been impactful as a film simply due to the reach it has as a star vehicle with Blake Lively. When I compare it to other recent  screen adaptations of stories about domestic abuse such as the incredible miniseries starring Margaret Qualley, I  am surprised that the movie industry still hasn’t gotten the memo about truthful and sincere storytelling that is able to retain even a small modicum of artistic integrity. I think partly the issue with modern cinema that is for the big screen is that nowadays because the more thoughtful films or shows  typically are released through streaming platforms, such big films don’t feel the need to be very mindful about their artistic choices and just focus on being a box office hit. But there are still films which are both extraordinary and also successful in terms of distribution. The big screen production houses need to be more careful with their script selection and production to create better narratives. 

It Ends With Us was a tragic waste of talent and ideas. I wouldn’t even suggest watching it so you can trash it. Some bad films are fun to berate as they are so bad they are ridiculous. But It Ends With Us will probably just leave you feeling hollow or frustrated. It also just made me feel sad that such movies are still considered cinema. They become box office hits as even if they are horrible, millions of people go watch them for the stars, the costumes, but not for the ideas. Audiences deserve better stories and better stories deserve bigger screens. It Ends With Us reminded me why such surface-level, subpar filmmaking needs to end. It can only end, however, if audiences stop going to such films, the blockbusters that almost everyone knows are going to be bad but we all still go. It is like a cult. As movie-goers of today, we need to change this attitude. If we demand better films, then better films will be made.  This trend of below-average scripts that lead to insincere narratives that are an insult to art must end. We must end it. It ends with us.