Warning: Spoilers Ahead

Book to film adaptations have taken cinema by storm in recent years; particularly those that are booktok famous (books that have been made famous by TikTok for any of us over the age of twenty). One author who can be seen everywhere on the app is Colleen Hoover whose book It Ends With Us has sold over 8 million copies. 

It Ends With Us flits between two timelines, teenage Lily (Isabela Ferrer) and adult Lily (Blake Lively). In her teenage years, she often witnesses the abuse of her mother from her father and when we meet adult Lily, she's mourning the loss of her father at his funeral. It's that evening that leads her to meeting charismatic neurosurgeon, Ryle. While charming at first, she soon notices patterns in his behaviour that become harder and harder to ignore.

The film takes a surface level look at domestic and sexual violence and attempts to broach the idea of breaking the cycle of generational abuse. While it's clear what the film is trying to achieve, it misses the mark a lot of the time and its marketing as a "chick flick to enjoy with friends" is enough to make me feel largely uncomfortable.

As someone who's read the book, it's difficult not to make comparisons. The film feels very dialled down and nowhere near as intense as the book. It simply doesn't capture the intricacies of domestic abuse and part of that comes down to how the film is being marketed. Baldoni (director and lead) seems to be the only person promoting the film for what it is, whereas other cast members are dressing it up as a fun romantic film to see with your girl friends, which it definitely is not.

Baldoni's shot choices are very deliberate and early in the film Lily subtly tells us that she's an unreliable narrator, but like Lily, it's easy to get swept into the charm of Ryle and believe that accidents happen and nothing harmful he does is intentional. As an audience member, like Lily, you're being gaslit and that's quite an eye-opening journey as a viewer. Of course, if you've read the book, you'll already know what's coming but Baldoni is so fantastic at what he does, you're almost doubting yourself at times.

It goes without saying that Justin Baldoni as Ryle is brilliant casting, and the interactions between young Lily (Isabela Ferrer) and young Atlas (Alex Neustaedter) make for the most impactful. While the current storyline is the core of the film, I found the chemistry and emotion more affecting in the past timeline. It Ends With Us does have some strong performances from its cast but unfortunately the weakest comes from the film's lead in Blake Lively. 

There are brief glimpses in the film where you can really see what it's trying to achieve, but sadly, those glimpses are so slim that it prevents me from being able to rate this film any higher than three stars.