I finally watched It Ends With Us
Please can you discuss it with me...
After deep diving into whether Blake Lively is a terrible person or not, I finally got myself to my favourite Everyman cinema to form my own opinion on It Ends With Us.
I appreciate I’m late to the party on this one, but am so eager to discuss it with you all, I’m hoping some of you might still have some thoughts to share.
Of course, it goes without saying… major spoilers immediately ahead.
For those who don’t care intend on ever seeing it, the film starts with Blake Lively aka Lilly Blossom Bloom (no, really) struggling to write a eulogy for her father’s funeral.
After walking out of said funeral, saying nothing at all, we cut to Lily on the rooftop of a Boston apartment block, where she has her meet cute with Justin Baldoni aka neurosurgeon, Ryle Kincaid.
My red flag is immediately raised when he enters stage left, kicking a chair, but still, he manages to win Blake over after they discuss some ‘Naked truths’ and he confesses he wants to have sex with her.
Let’s just say, Ryle wouldn’t have won me over. However, neither did Lily to begin with.
Out of the blue and minutes after meeting, she decides that losing her virginity to a homeless man is a ‘funny’ fact to share with this ridiculously ripped neurosurgeon.
After explaining she doesn’t do casual, Lily and her Carhartt overalls focus on opening her new flower shop because yes, Lily Blossom Bloom is a florist.
This is where the revamped Sex and the City aka And Just Like That vibes come in, because no sooner has Lily got the keys to her shop, but an incredibly wealthy woman, complete with Birkin bag, comes knocking for a job.
Of course, our capitalist shop assistant also just so happens to be Ryle’s sister and it’s from here that Lily and Ryle’s relationship begins to - for want of a better word - bloom.
Meanwhile, flashbacks to Lily’s childhood reveal that she wasn’t just being a Bella Swan-esque moody brat about her dad. Turns out he was physically abusive to her mother.
Oh, and she wasn’t lying about losing her virginity to a homeless boy. Despite living in a mini replica of the White House (her father was the local mayor), just outside her window was a derelict graffit’d building, where she first spies her future childhood sweetheart, Atlas Corrigan.
Back to present day and Lily and Ryle’s passionate relationship starts to come undone over a burnt frittata. Lily ends up with a black eye, but at first it’s not clear if it was deliberate.
Same with her fall down the stairs.
This coincides with Lily bumping into Atlas again, who now runs his own critically-acclaimed restaurant, where he both waits tables and cooks the food.
Ryle’s jealously over Atlas reaches a breaking point and when he attempts to rape Lily, her flashbacks make it clear that the previous incidents were no accident.
Thankfully, Lily escapes and turns to Atlas for help. However, a spanner is thrown into the works when her hospital visit reveals she is also pregnant with horrible Ryle’s baby.
In order for it not to appear like Atlas saved Lily, she leaves him to go it alone, not before he delivers the line I’ll be quoting for the foreseeable future, “If you ever wanna fall in love again, fall in love with me”.
*Plans future tattoo*
Unlike most domestic abuse, aside from a few missed calls, Ryle makes it easy for Lily to leave. He even helps build the baby’s cot.
Turns out, Ryle’s sister has a reason for why he is the way that he is. When Ryle was 6, he shot and killed his brother when accidentally playing with their father’s gun.
Which is why, after her labour (with Ryle holding hands throughout), Lily tells him she wants to name the daughter after his dead brother, which, in my opinion, is a kindness he does not deserve.
Thanfully though, Lily also tells Ryle she wants a divorce, which he conceeds to after she asks him what he’d say if someone threw his daughter down the stairs.
As he exits the room, Lily insults all our intelligence by whispering to her newborn daughter, “It ends with us”.
You know, just in case the reference to the title and ending wasn’t clear enough.
Finally, we fast forward a few months to a time where it would be acceptable for Lily to reunite with Atlas, without having connotations of being saved by a man and we can only assume they all live happily ever after in Hollywood’s romanticised version of domestic violence.
Despite all that, I didn’t hate the film.
Yes, I eye rolled and picked more holes in it than a block of emmental, but I was still an absolute sucker for Lily and Atlas’ love story and Blake’s hair really did look great.
However, I think the biggest problem with the film, is that it doesn’t know what it’s mean to be.
On one hand you have Blake doing a Carrie Bradshaw impression throughout, with more costume and hair changes than the Era’s tour, then on the other, you have this quite flinching up close view into male violence against women.
It's truly jarring and as the viewer you’re left feeling guilty for wanting to know what eyeliner Blake’s makeup artist used.
The violence still very much has the Hollywood treatment. Of course he doesn’t go as far as raping as his wife and of course he has a ‘back story’ to, in some way, justify his behaviour.
Ultimately, watching the film, to me, cemented that Justin and Blake clearly had creative differences.
Blake’s whole, bring a friend and wear florals schtick and Ryan Reynold’s weird Deadpool cross promotion, was clearly planned to try and recreate last summer’s Barbie/Oppenheimer moment.
Not to mention, all of Blake’s focus on the wardrobe and and hair, is in contrast to Justin’s desire to create a grittier, less wholesome and potentially slightly worthy film.
For what it’s worth, you could argue that Blake’s route, took the film more mainstream, therefore getting more people to see it, which ultimately should be the end goal, if you’re trying to help people experiencing this abuse.
But, it does mean it’s - for want of a better word - sillier.
Still, despite my observations, I remain a stickler for a love story and, if Blake can promote her haircare line, surely it’s okay that I spent the two hours admiring her makeup throughout the film.
Actually, don’t answer that.