Review: ‘It Ends With Us’ Struggles to Convey Its Take on Unhealthy Relationships

It’s hard to truly know what a relationship is like without being in it. An outside perspective, however, can help illuminate problematic behavior that may feel all too normal and acceptable. There aren’t always clear signs of abuse, and the first time something does happen can feel like an accident that won’t ever be repeated. It Ends With Us explores how the trauma endured by one woman in her childhood leads to her always having her guard up but not entirely attuned to the warning signs that show history starting to repeat itself.

In town for her father’s funeral, a temperamental, violent man about whom she can’t list even one of his five best qualities, Lily (Blake Lively) meets Ryle (Justin Baldoni), a neurosurgeon, on a rooftop one night. They instantly have a connection but Lily is apprehensive about becoming anything other than friends. Even in a big city like Boston, they can’t avoid each other for long when Ryle’s sister Allysa (Jenny Slate) becomes Lily’s employee and best friend at her flower shop. It’s only once Lily is finally all in that memories of her past flood back and she begins to realize that Ryle may not be the perfect, charming guy she thought he was.

This film’s trailer advertises it as “based on the worldwide phenomenon” by Colleen Hoover, giving it a much grander universe than the span of its 130 minutes. Audiences may already know what to expect from its story even though the film takes considerable time to get to the meat of its content. It plays like a romantic drama where Ryle is determined to wear Lily down and she’s waiting for the other shoe to drop, but there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong aside from the ghosts of her past, seen in flashbacks where a younger Lily (Isabela Ferrer) strikes up a very close and intimate relationship with her homeless friend Atlas (Alex Neustaedter).

But there isn’t a clear direction for this film for much of its first half, and only when she begins to see a different side of Ryle do things shift abruptly into gear. From there, there’s a foreboding sense of dread, but one that can’t quite be placed since Lily isn’t able to identify what it is that’s making her doubt the fortitude of her relationship. That may be the film’s most accurate facet, since the abuse she endures is far subtler and more difficult to pinpoint than many who perceive that type of behavior to be black-and-white and so clearly describable. It’s certainly not as blatant as the much more overt red-flag-filled relationship portrayed in this year’s SXSW entry I Love You Forever.

Lively has star power that helps to bring this issue to an even bigger audience than the book did, and she’s most compelling in scenes that find her forced to confront an unexpected situation in which she’s not sure how she can best protect herself. She’s well-mirrored by Ferrer, in her first feature film role, as her younger and more optimistic self, who shares some of the film’s most poignant scenes with the equally capable Neustaedter. The most intriguing casting decision is that of director Baldoni, the Jane the Virgin star who boldly inhabits a role that lands somewhere between handsome hunk and unstable villain, hardly a plush part to smoothly catapult himself to the blockbuster film world.

Lively and Baldoni have solid chemistry that makes the gradual breakdown and undoing of their romance all the more believable, yet there’s still something about this film that just doesn’t click. With a script from Christy Hall, who most recently enlivened a 100-minute cab ride as writer and director of Daddio, this film is in no rush to reach its apex, and it feels that way. The split between present and past doesn’t come off as natural, and its layered characters often feel underdeveloped in the scenes the film portrays. It Ends With Us boasts an important message but doesn’t stick the landing with its delivery.

Movie Rating: 5/10

Awards Buzz: Lively is a big draw but more with audiences than with accolades, and this feels more like a crowdpleaser – despite the seriousness of its content – than a film that will take home prizes for its dramatic craft.