The cover of Colleen Hoover’s book, “It Ends With Us”, the inspiration for the film.
colleenhoover.com |Courtesy
As one of the most anticipated movies of the year, “It Ends With Us” drastically falls short of expectations. Based on Colleen Hoover’s book of the same name, the movie should have been a guaranteed success. The book stood solidly on the New York Times bestseller list for 165 weeks. The book is an obvious success, but the movie was met with mixed reviews from book lovers and movie lovers alike.
The story follows Lily Bloom, played by Blake Lively, as she moves to Boston to follow her dreams and overcome the troubles of her childhood. She meets the charming Ryle Kincaid, played by Justin Baldoni, and quickly falls in love. The story then follows their relationship while they navigate life and some of the not so beautiful aspects of their relationship.
The story line is a wonderful telling of surviving domestic violence and breaking generational curses. While the movie does a decent job of highlighting the importance and seriousness of this issue, it seems as if there is a disconnect between the themes and the movie itself.
With a less than stellar soundtrack, simple cinematography and bland acting, the movie can be considered a disappointment to many audience members. The movie might not be hurting in the box office, but reviews online range from views that loved the movie, to views who saw it as a pitiful and almost misplaced attempt to represent people in abusive environments.
“It Ends With Us” only scored a 57% on rotten tomatoes, marking it with a “rotten” rating. Although the movie only missed the “fresh” rating by 3%, it still raises some questions about the production, especially given the success of the book.
Many book lovers have said the movie doesn’t follow the plot line of the book, while others seem to think that “It Ends With Us” is the movie of the year. With a google rating of only a 3.5, it seems that “It Ends With Us” is nothing worth celebrating.
Audience members seem to be split on whether or not “It Ends With Us” was worth the initial hype. One google reviewer said, “A beautifully directed, poignant and bitter sweet melodrama that tugs at your heart strings,” while another claimed “If you need a movie to help you drift off to sleep, this one might do the trick. The story moved slower than a 2G connection.”
With a running time of just over 2 hours, the movie could have included something more. Parts of the movie seemed as if the characters were moving in circles; something similar to a poorly done teen coming of age film.
Now that the film is out, there have been some complaints circulating about Lively’s promotion of the film. Many audience members are concerned that Lively isn’t handling the film with the proper amount of care. According to Business Insider, Lively was quoted as saying, “Grab your girls, wear your florals!” as a way to promote the film and encourage audiences to buy tickets.
Lively has also reportedly been using promotional interviews about the film to push her hair product line and other products. She has also been wearing brightly colored floral outfits to promotional events and to premiers. In terms of her character, Lily, the bright colored florals would be on brand. Many audiences believe, however, that the bright florals take away from the serious message of the film.
Regardless of whether or not Lively is in the wrong with these actions, many audience members seem to agree that the movie does not do justice to the proposed storyline. One review on Rotten Tomatoes said, “It Ends With Us has lofty goals it ultimately cannot meet, and the end result is a bad film that is borderline insulting in its depiction of the very subject it seeks to explore.”
It is true that “It Ends With Us” had lofty goals, and certainly sky high expectations, but in the end the film simply could not pull through. There was nothing in this film that was particularly engaging or attention grabbing, and the ending seemed to be more of a let down than a conclusion. If the film wasn’t a complete failure, it certainly was greatly disappointing to many audience members.
By Calee Lukowski
