Colleen Hoover is a successful, popular author with 26 books published and over 20 million copies sold. So it wasn’t surprising when one of her bestselling books was going to be turned into a movie. On Aug. 9, eight years after the original book release, the film adaptation of “It Ends With Us” launched in theaters. Having read the book before going to the movie, my expectations were set pretty high, and they were mostly met. Even without reading the book, “It Ends With Us” is an amazing emotional experience for movie-goers. Although there were a few things that didn’t quite match the book, such as some scenes, overall it was wonderful and gave the viewers an awareness of what could be happening behind closed doors.
I knew the movie was going to be worthwhile from just the first scene where the main character, Lily Bloom, is introduced. Even with this cheesy name, the actress, Blake Lively, showed the very emotional first scene amazingly. This scene starts with Lily giving a eulogy at a funeral and then returning to Boston, where she moved straight out of college. Needing some fresh air, she decides to relax on a random apartment rooftop. During this relaxing time for her, she meets the other main character, Ryle Kincaid, a neurosurgeon played by Justin Baldoni. Coincidentally, this isn’t the only time the two meet. While Lily is looking for employees for her new flower shop, she just so happens to hire Ryle’s sister, Alyssa. This leads Lily to continue running into Rye. The more the two see each other, the more their romantic yet harsh tension grows. Finally, the two of them decide to give it a shot and date.
Everything seems perfect for a while, but soon afterward an incident happens that reminds Lily too much of her traumatic past. Shortly after, Alyssa and her husband take Ryle and Lily to a newly opened restaurant. And this is when the audience is introduced to the final main character, Atlas Corrigan, played by Brandon Sklenar. Atlas grew up with Lily and could sympathize with her troubles as a kid. After seeing Atlas again, Lily’s feelings start to contrast with her and Ryle’s. The two find themselves slightly connecting again while Lily and Ryle’s relationships goes through some ups and downs.
The first thing that caught my eye was the small details of the emotions in the first scene. Lively and Baldoni gave the viewers an amazing perspective of their characters’ emotions. The watchers could feel how melancholy Lily was. We could also exactly see Ryle’s intense feelings even if the viewer didn’t know what or why it was happening. They were caught perfectly and made me want to keep watching. In both the book and movie, the audience could feel the tightness between them.
While there are some scenes where a lot of the characters’ feelings are shown, however, it seems the more important parts have fewer feelings, which contradicts a lot of the book. One very important but voilent scene between Ryle and Lily could have been carried out much better. In the movie, Lively and Baldoni could have done more to portray their characters’ distinctive emotions. This is one thing I believe could’ve been pictured better. In the book, Lily makes her emotions clear to Ryle but also hides how much it affects her, but in the movie, both Lily and Ryle are too calm in intense situations. Lively needed more feeling throughout the entire movie, and it felt like Lily’s personality from the book was a little lost. Though these small details like a lack of emotion did not change anything to the plot, it would have given a more inside look at Lily and Ryle and their relationship. It disappointed me to see all the small details of emotion not shown better in the movie.
Another thing I right away noticed was the idea of Lily opening her own flower shop. Although it doesn’t change anything to the plot of the movie, in the book Lily decides to open up her shop later down the road. Regardless of when it happened, I did love how the movie portrayed Lily’s flower shop. In both the book and movie, she decides to open a punky flower shop. The attention to detail here was astounding, and the producers totally captured how I pictured the shop while reading.
One thing the producers did not follow just so happened to be the climax of the story. These two scenes in the book and film play out very differently. Compared to the book, the changes are drastic, and I feel that the producers should have followed the book more. Not only was this scene changed, it ties back into not having enough emotion. During the climax scene, the viewers don’t get the full effect of it because of the lack of emotion.
With being such a big part, the characters are different from how they are pictured in the books. Lily’s appearance was slightly different. She was younger and had much more defined features such as her bright red hair. Lively was also just too old to play 23-year-old Lily Bloom. Baldoni was a great actor and fit the description, but he just needed to play the two-sided part of Ryle better. Baldoni gave a great performance that made the movie wonderful, but there were parts where it felt like he could’ve done more. Lastly, Sklenar did an amazing job acting and fit the description of Atlas well; I just wish the watchers would’ve seen more of him.
Overall, the film was still impactful for anyone, having read the book or not. Regardless of some of the missing emotions or details and misplaced actors, the book-to-movie adaptation did really well. Even with some of these hard critiques, I still loved the movie and all its powerful moments such as when Lily comes to recognize what is happening. This was amazing because it showed how easily she got blinded by love. Despite the few changed details, going to this film can bring awareness to the viewer of what can happen behind closed doors. Book or movie, I had a wonderful time seeing this film in theaters.
