Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel, It Ends with Us, gained popularity four years after its publication, thanks to the rise of ‘BookTok’ in 2021—a subgroup of TikTok users who discuss books and post reviews, eventually popularising some of them. What started on TikTok quickly spread to other social media platforms and, soon enough, everyone was buying it.
Its much-awaited film adaptation released this summer, featuring big names such as Blake Lively (Gossip Girl), Justin Baldoni (Jane the Virgin), and Hassan Minaj (though it’s unclear why he was cast, especially since neither his humour nor his socio-political wit enhanced his character or brought sensitivity to the plot).
It seems the filmmakers are still hung up on the book’s popularity on social media, trying too hard to ensure it remains there forever. In January 2023, Hoover shelved The Official It Ends with Us Colouring Book after facing criticism on social media for the insensitive nature of turning a story centred on domestic violence into a recreational activity. However, the colouring book has now come to screens near you because that’s what the film adaptation essentially is.
The movie revolves around Lily Bloom (Lively), who grew up seeing her father, Andrew (Kevin McKidd), physically abuse her mother, Jenny (Amy Morton). She has a chance encounter with Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni), a neurosurgeon only interested in casual relationships but who eventually commits to her. The film is 2 hours and 11 minutes long, but it only spends around 15 minutes tackling the main theme—domestic violence. This mainly includes scenes depicting the violence but with almost no focus on Lily’s mental state or her feelings. There is a quick shower scene where memories of Ryle flash through Lily's mind, juxtaposing good moments with him slapping her, throwing her down the stairs, and attempting to rape her. It then cuts to Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), her childhood love trying to support her when she runs away from Ryle. They discuss what song they’d like to be played at their funeral, even though Lily has just escaped a harrowing situation.
Director Baldoni effectively depicts the abuse from the survivor’s point of view, where she is unable to process what just happened to her. But it’s baffling that, despite a ready-made plot the script omits important scenes dealing with the central theme. In the book, after Ryle first hits Lily, she gives him an ultimatum and says what he did to her was wrong. But in the movie, Lily buys into Ryle’s suggestion that they made “a lovely mess,” as he had also cut himself with the broken pieces of the casserole he dropped before hitting her. After the first incident, Ryle doesn’t attack Lily until they are married. But when he discovers the card with Atlas's number hidden behind Lily's phone cover, he pushes her down the stairs. In the film, Lily wakes up to Ryle stitching her wound, gaslighting her into thinking she accidentally fell and reassuring her that she’s okay. Lily believes him and decides to stay, contradicting the novel, where she threw him out of the apartment when he insisted that she fell down the stairs.
It can be argued that Lily’s reaction to Ryle’s abuse differs from the book (where they’re in their 20s as opposed to mid-thirties) because different people react to things differently, finding their own reasons to justify abusive relationships. But unlike the book, the movie doesn’t contain Lily’s conversation with her mother about the abuse, diluting the plot. In the novel, they talk about not losing sight of one’s limitations and understanding of abuse—why someone might stay in a toxic relationship: “Every incident chips away at your limit. Every time you choose to stay, it makes the next time that much harder to leave. Eventually, you lose sight of your limit altogether, because you start to think, ‘I've lasted five years now. What’s five more?’” This important exchange doesn’t just shape Lily’s decision of divorcing Ryle but also gives insight into her mom’s psyche, who herself endured an abusive relationship.
In the movie, Lily does not tell Jenny about Ryle’s abuse—it’s assumed that she knows. In a hurried scene, Jenny mumbles, “It would have been harder to leave, and I loved him.” There is no time given for the two to even make eye contact during the scene. Their conversation in the book solidified Lily’s decision to divorce Ryle and break the cycle of abuse, not just for herself but also for her daughter, whom she was pregnant with at the time.
Social media is buzzing with discussions about the apparent tension between Baldoni and Lively, who has also produced the film, over its direction. Clips of her encouraging fans to “bring your friends, your girlfriends, and wear your florals” have circulated widely, while Baldoni’s response to fans’ disappointments— “we are in an attention economy and a clickbait world, and everyone is figuring out how to gather attention. If anyone has that real-life experience, I can imagine how hard it would be to see it portrayed in a romance novel”—is also making the rounds.
What could have been a powerful portrayal of a woman breaking the shackles of abuse feels like a missed opportunity instead, more concerned with appeasing social media hype than staying true to the story's core message. While the film may draw audiences due to the novel’s popularity, its star-studded cast, or the controversies, it ultimately falls short of delivering the impactful message many fans hoped to see.
