By Kelsey McAvin
Executive Arts Editor
Movie breakdown-
“It Ends With Us” has become one of the most popular books in the world. Published in 2016, Colleen Hoover wrote this novel to raise awareness on domestic and emotional abuse in relationships. The story follows Lily Bloom, a florist, who meets a charming neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid who she immediately develops feelings for. As the two get closer, their relationship begins to replicate the abuse her mom endured from her husband. However, Lily is soon left with a choice to make once her first love from highschool, Atlas Corrigan, randomly reenters her life and Ryle spins out of control.
“It Ends With Us” is a heart wrenching story that pulls the viewer in. Hoover reveals in a note at the end of the book that the novel was inspired by her mother, who was abused by her husband. The novel shows the struggles of being in an abusive relationship, and gives insight on how it’s not as easy to leave as it seems to people on the outside of the relationship.
Hoover’s skilled writing helps the readers understand why Lily was so drawn into Ryle and his manipulation. It was treacherous to see a character who started out so amazing and charming turn out to be an awful person, and Hoover’s writing style and tone let readers really feel this betrayal in their hearts.
The film adaptation of ‘It Ends With Us” was released on August 9, 2024. Starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, most fans had skyrocketing expectations for this movie. Viewers can agree to disagree that the casting of Lively was very unfitting and disappointing for the production. Lily Bloom is described as a 23 year old redhead, but Lively is a 37 year old blonde who’s hair was dyed red for the movie.
Moving past this, the outfits in the movie were horrendous. The intention of the wild outfits were to show that Lily is quirky and free, but did not match Lively as an actress as she’s most known for her role in the early 2000’s teen drama, Gossip Girl, where her style is flawless the entire season. Eric Daman, the movie’s costume designer, also worked with Lively’s outfits during her time on Gossip Girl, so fan’s are overall let down with the ugly outfit choices.
To talk about the actual content of the movie, it was an overall let down for a long list of reasons. A good amount of important scenes from the book were not added in the movie, which makes the movie feel that it was rushed for production. Development for the movie started in 2019, directed by Justin Baldoni, so spending that long on a movie with that many missing parts is not a good look.
Overall, the movie had so much potential to be an amazing, heart wrenching story made to educate people and spread awareness on domestic violence. The execution was not as good as the intention, creating a mediocre movie that does not compare to the book in the slightest.
Scandal –
Now let’s talk about the real reason people seem to absolutely hate this movie and hate Blake Lively. There is obvious tension between Baldoni and Lively, with clues like Baldoni was not pictured with the cast at the New York movie premier on August 6. Lively and Hoover do not follow Baldoni on Instagram, while they follow each other and other cast members.
Baldoni was absent from Vanity Fair’s interview with lively and other members of the cast, which fans noticed quickly. However, on August 8, Baldoni spoke extremely high of his costar Lively during an appearance on TODAY. He spoke on both her and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, huge impact on the movie. It’s even revealed that Reynolds wrote the rooftop scene, where Ryle and Lily first met.
Lively on the other hand has yet to mention Baldoni in an interview. Instead, she praises her husband and how her celebrations are also his. It feels as if Lively is pushing out Baldoni from the film and giving Reynold’s his credit.
Lively also states that “It Ends With Us” is not a movie about domestic violence, it merely covers the subject of it. On the other hand, Baldoni states in an interview with CBS News that he hopes this movie will change how everyone views domestic violence, specifically men.
Lively has allegedly accused Baldoni of insulting her throughout the movie. Baldoni asked for her weight before filming a scene where he needed to pick her up, as he has struggled with back injuries.
While Baldoni is using this movie to spread awareness on domestic violence, Lively is advertising it as the perfect movie for girl’s night and to gain attraction to her new hair care line and soda line.
In an interview, Lively is asked about how the movie could inspire people to reach out to her and talk about abuse they’re going through. Instead of offering her help or sympathy for them, she treats the question as a joke and tells fans to call domestic violence services.
In an interview with Cafe Society, journalist Kjersti Flaa congratulates Lively on her new pregnancy, which she had recently confirmed with the public. Lively takes this compliment as an offense and responds by congratulating Flaa on her bump, although she is not pregnant and was just implying she’s fat.
It’s clear that Lively is not well enough educated on the effects and realities of domestic violence to play this part. It’s disappointing to see as someone who has been a fan of Blake Lively for all their life, but true colors really do come out at times like this.
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