'It Ends With Us' review: Blake Lively is the anchor for romantic drama with Justin Baldoni, Brandon Sklenar

Starring Blake Lively, Brandon Sklenar, Isabela Ferrer, Alex Neustaedter and Justin Baldoni (who also directed the movie), Colleen Hoover’s famed novel “It Ends With Us” has finally gotten an on-screen adaptation. With the intense fandom over Hoover's book, including a heart tattoo many fans have gotten, Christy Hall's script takes on the story's depiction of domestic violence in a glossy rom-com world.

Lively captivated us as Serena van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl and had us cherishing our friends a little more after The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants films, but her portrayal of Lily Bloom is her most moving role yet. While It Ends With Us may have you wanting a little more from some of its characters, there are still moments that will leave you with a pit in your stomach.

It Ends With Us release date: August 9
Cast: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Brandon Sklenar, Isabela Ferrer, Alex Neustaedter, Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj, Amy Morton, Kevin McKidd
Director: Justin Baldoni
Runtime: 132 minutes

What is 'It Ends With Us' about?

We first meet Lily (Lively) as she enters her childhood home in Maine ahead of her father’s funeral. But there's a problem: Lily can't even think of five nice things to say about her father in a eulogy.

Running out of the funeral, Lily heads back to Boston where she's in the process of opening a flower shop. After sneaking onto a rooftop to sit with her thoughts Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni) enters, kicking over a chair. As the two start chatting, opening up to each other about their personal lives, things get flirty fast with lots of sexual tension. But Ryle is a neurosurgeon and a call from the hospital pulls him away from Lily quickly.

Leaning into a classic rom-com trope, a chance encounter with Ryle's sister Allysa (Jenny Slate) brings Lily and Ryle together again. And of course, Ryle is adamant that he’s not a commitment guy, but Lily is the woman who has changed him.

Taking a pause on this timeline, It Ends With Us jumps back in time to show us Lily’s past when, as a teen (played by Ferrer), she fell in love with schoolmate Atlas (Neustaedter), who was kicked out of his home. Both Atlas and Lily have seen their mothers abused by their partners, in Lily's case by her father, played by Kevin McKidd, and Lily and Atlas are able to provide comfort for each other.

While Atlas and Lily lost touch, another chance meeting, this time at a restaurant in Boston, sparks an unexpected reconnection when they're in their 30s. But at this point, Lily is in a fully committed relationship with Ryle.

As Lily and Ryle's relationship evolves and Atlas (played by Sklenar in the later timeline) is seen as a threat for Ryle, the couple’s relationship becomes particularly volatile. This puts Lily in a position to reconcile with her past trauma from her parents' relationship, and hopefully preventing that from becoming her future.

Is 'It Ends With Us' worth watching?

Frequently in films to date we've seen domestic violence shown as a woman being abused by her husband or boyfriend, and the audience is just waiting for her to leave the abusive partner by the end. It Ends With Us has us sit in the journey of a woman coming to the understanding that her partner is abusive, which is far more difficult to depict. We're figuring out Lily has to leave Ryle just as she is.

For example, the first depiction of Ryle's abuse is portrayed as something that can be explained away as an accident. They left a frittata cooking for too long and it's burning, with both Lily and Ryle rushing to get it out of the oven. Using clever camera angles and making everything look hazy we, as the audience, can't really see what actually happened when Lily ends up on the ground with an injury.

Where It Ends With Us works is that we are constantly going through the story from Lily's point of view, pushing against the often overly simplified depiction of choosing between staying or leaving an abusive relationship by leaning into the complexity.

In the older timeframe with teenage Lily and Atlas, Ferrer and Neustaedter do a phenomenal job at making us care about these two as a couple in the time they're given, setting the groundwork for Sklenar's performance as older Atlas, but we would have loved more time with them to really feel the Atlas and Lily connection. But that being said, it's appealing that the final focus of the film is on Lily's own empowerment and independence, not necessarily another relationship.

Baldoni's Ryle at the beginning of the film is that classic romantic lead, oozing with charisma, which is particularly attractive paired with Lively who is an idyllic romantic leading woman. Big blonde hair that's perfectly messy, a wardrobe you wish you had and a personality that makes you want to be her best friend.

If you can't quite sink into the melodrama or you're turned off by some of the rom-com tropes of the story, you can still feel the emotional draw from Lively's performance, while Baldoni brings nuance to Ryle, but in a way that doesn't forgive or excuse his actions.

It does feel like an odd mix on screen at times, where we’re thrown into this world where everyone is conveniently wealthy, giving us that idyllic rom-com setting, as we look at generational impacts of domestic violence. But it's true to its source material, and has that blend of extravagance and emotional drama that appeals to many.

It Ends With Us is in theatres August 9.