“It Ends with Us” is a romance movie based on the popular novel of the same name written by Colleen Hoover and directed by Justin Baldoni. Released on Aug. 9, the movie promotes ending and standing up against domestic violence even though it may be difficult. The way the movie depicts the theme of domestic violence makes viewers question whether it was included for awareness or as a reckless source of entertainment instead.
The movie revolves around the characters Lily Blossom Bloom, a florist, played by Blake Lively and Ryle Kincaid, a neurologist, played by Justin Baldoni. The movie begins with Lily, who is 36 years old, driving back to Plethora, Maine to attend her father’s funeral. She had a poor relationship with her father growing up as he abused her mother.
Lily leaves her father’s service and bumps into Ryle on the rooftop of the apartment complex he resides in. While the two are talking, they start to bond over their occupations and dreams, getting to know one another. Soon after, Ryle makes it obvious that he is interested in Lily, kickstarting the movie.
Months later, Lily is dating Ryle and it seems like their relationship is going well. However, there are many instances in which Lily ignores the obvious red flags of abuse. When Ryle discovers that Lily has reconnected with her ex-boyfriend Atlas Corrigan–played by Brandon Sklenar–who she shares a deep history with, he initiates his abusive actions towards her. One instance of this occurs when Ryle burns his hand on a hot tray and hits Lily for laughing at him.
Ryle repeatedly makes it seem as if these abusive instances are an accident. Another example is when Lily and Ryle have an argument about why she has Atlas’ phone number. Ryle gets furious and pushes her down a flight of stairs. Realizing what he has done, Ryle takes care of Lily’s wounds and persuades her to believe she accidentally tripped down the stairs. Unfortunately, Lily does not catch on to the abusive patterns until she is sexually harassed by him. After this, she faces the challenge of letting Ryle go to protect herself.
Scenes such as these fail to address the magnitude of how Lily’s abusive relationship is affecting her. The only scene Lily looks distraught from the violence in is the one in which Ryle is sexually harassing her, and she has to receive help from Atlas.
The film fails to put Lily through other hardships that victims of domestic violence face when leaving these relationships. When leaving Ryle, for instance, she did not need to consider financial issues and who gets custody of their child, which are very real and very serious issues that actual abuse victims face.
At the end of the movie, Lily is with Atlas getting treated when Lily finds out she is pregnant with her future daughter, Emmy. After giving birth a few months later, Lily faces Ryle and gets a divorce. In this plotline, the movie completely avoided including the issue of custody battles, which would resonate with abuse victims.
Currently, there is a lot of controversy surrounding Lively and her seeming lack of concern and seriousness towards the topic of domestic violence. Her unseriousness in discussing abuse during interviews is highly disappointing.
During an interview with Lively and her co-star Sklenar, interviewer Jake Hamilton asked Lively how she would respond to a viewer wanting to speak with her about the movie’s topic. In response Lively said, “Ask for my address or my phone number or like my location share. I can location share you. I’m a Virgo, so are we talking logistics, are we talking emotionally?”
Blake seems to be inconsiderate to the victim when mentioning her zodiac sign instead of providing aid and comfort to them. Another instance of Lively disregarding domestic violence is during an advertisement for the film on Instagram, in which she states, “Grab your friends, wear your florals and head out to see it.”
Lively advertises the movie as if it does not depict a significant subject such as domestic abuse. She undermines the film’s message by overlooking the importance of how she advertises it while paying no attention to the impact it has on viewers.
The film’s most recent trailer failed to focus on the theme of domestic violence. Most scenes do not relate to the abuse Lily faces and makes it seem like the movie is a love triangle, which is misleading to viewers.
“It Ends With Us” is meant to have an empowering theme revolving around standing up against domestic violence. Overall, the film’s realism and advertising needed to be improved to touch the hearts of survivors of domestic violence.
