Are you sure you're not going out with me just because 'Ryle' sounds like 'Ryan'? — Photos: Handout
A dreamy romance becomes a cautionary tale about the cycle of abuse in It Ends With Us, a clunky but watchable popcorn drama that unfolds just this side of the Lifetime Cinematic Universe.
Blake Lively stars in this gauzy adaptation of Colleen Hoover's hugely popular 2016 novel as Lily Bloom (full name: Lily Blossom Bloom), a florist (of course!) who meets Ryle (Justin Baldoni), a sexy and mysterious neurosurgeon, one night on a Boston rooftop.
Their interaction is painfully awkward – he tells her he watched a little boy die at work that day, she tells him she lost her virginity to someone who was homeless – but their chemistry is teeming with sexual energy. "You're making me jealous of a homeless man," he tells her, followed closely by, "I wanna have sex with you."
'Hi, my name is Atlas and I can carry the world with these amazing biceps.'
OK, Shakespeare it ain't. But the film is an effective mix of cheesy, warm and earnest, with a core of you-go-girl empowerment that helps smooth over its rough patches. It's built for audiences to laugh at, to cry at and to high-five their friends over as the closing credits roll, and in that respect, it earns its broad-stroked stripes.
The flippancy with which Lily trivialises her encounter with the unhoused individual does not set it up to be a major plot thread. But It Ends With Us unfolds in two timelines, one with teenage Lily (played by Isabela Ferrer, who strikes a strong physical resemblance to Lively) and her budding romance with Atlas (Alex Neustaedter), whom she spots sneaking into the abandoned home across the street from her. We also see glimpses of Lily's parents' abusive relationship and the way it imprints on Lily.
Wait, you told me you'd teach me how to make love potions, not sell me essential oils!
Back in the present, Lily and Ryle are now hot and heavy – their relationship always manages to feel like first date flirtation, which is how Lively plays her part – and are living in Ryle's swanky high-rise apartment. But signs of Ryle's abusive nature are starting to poke through, and his jealousy is triggered by the reemergence of Atlas (played by Brandon Sklenar as an adult), now a budding restaurateur, into Lily's life.
Ryle seems like a pure soap opera construct, the chiseled stranger (those abs!) who's also a brain surgeon who's seemingly perfect but who's carrying a Deep Dark Secret. The story (Christy Hall wrote the screenplay) gets rocky when it detours into Sleeping With The Enemy" territory, but it's sheer romance lit material, and Sklenar's Atlas makes an affable kindhearted, soft-eyed counterpart to Ryle.
Jenny Slate, always a welcome presence, shows up as Lily's co-worker and Ryle's sister (isn't that convenient?), who is married to an entrepreneur (Hasan Minhaj) with endless capital.
Hey, you're supposed to sing into the mike, not use it to shave your beard.
The film's décor and fashions – Lively's character prefers Carhartt overalls, and her flower shop is decadently shabby-chic – are part of its charm; no one on screen is struggling to make rent, not even Atlas, who winds up landing in a pretty nice place.
Baldoni also directs, and if the story beats are obvious, he manages to hit its intended marks, while working a few curveballs into the strike zone as well. (Blake Lively's BFF Taylor Swift even drops off a song, My Tears Ricochet, which is given prime placement during the climax of the movie.)
The movie's heavy themes make it a bit weightier than a summer breeze, but It Ends With Us is the big screen equivalent of a beach read: It's light on the eyes, easy to digest and simple to walk away from once it's over. – The Detroit News/Tribune News Service
Summary:
The movie equivalent of a summer beach read
