In recent years, late summer has become the launching pad for female-oriented literary adaptations. Just see the success of Where the Crawdads Sing in 2022. This year’s entry into that canon, the Blake Lively vehicle It Ends With Us, is better than most, offering a crowd-pleasing romance that, despite some third-act jitters, mostly resonates.
It Ends With Us Review
Based on the best-selling novel by Colleen Hoover, It Ends With Us follows a woman who has a chance encounter with a guy she falls madly in love with, only for him to reveal a dark side that brings back trauma from her childhood. If you’re familiar with the literary genre of “new adult” fiction, you’re probably aware of what to expect here — melodrama, a slightly problematic romance, and attempts to address important themes that don’t always work.
At two hours and ten minutes, It Ends With Us does begin to try the audience’s patience at times. The first act is mainly buoyant and moves along at a nice pace, but as the storyline following the protagonist in her youth is introduced, it starts to slow down a bit. But in the third act, things become incredibly rushed with many time jumps, as if a lot of material had to be cut to get it down to even this runtime.
Considering how controversial the book is, it’s probably not unexpected that It Ends With Us doesn’t handle its weightier moments with the most grace. These problems become particularly evident in the third act when the conflict begins to reach its peak. Although it never quite becomes embarrassingly reductive, its discussion of abuse certainly isn’t as nuanced as it needed to be.
Some moments in the film also likely worked better in the novel than on the big screen. For example, the use of an unreliable narrator device feels underdeveloped, making it more confusing than provocative. The film’s emotional climax is also expositional in a way that isn’t atypical for a novel format but feels almost condescending as dialogue in a script.
However, the true saving grace of It Ends With Us is Blake Lively, whose performance is incredible. She’s no stranger to sappy romantic melodramas like this, but with this role in particular, she brings a lot of vulnerability. She eats up the line delivery, having absolutely electric chemistry with every one of her co-stars, but the moments that shine the brightest are those without dialogue, where she allows her mannerisms to communicate a quiet pain that makes the film all the more impactful.
The rest of the cast isn’t bad, either. Baldoni himself takes the primary supporting role, and he effectively achieves the balance between charming and intimidating to make this character work. Jenny Slate is doing her usual ditsy schtick in her supporting role, but it works for the best friend/wingwoman archetype, and even though he only has a few scenes, Hasan Minhaj is a fun presence. The only person in the supporting cast who underwhelms is Brandon Sklenar, and it’s not that he’s bad; he just doesn’t make much of an impression in one way or another.
Baldoni’s direction is also strong, with a much better grasp of visual grammar than most films in this genre. It Ends With Us actually looks like a movie, eschewing the oversaturated cinematography typical of this kind of melodrama. Although the soundtrack choices are a bit on the nose (yes, including an obligatory Taylor Swift needle drop), it does at least feel like there was thought put into them rather than choosing pop songs to pander to the audience.
Is It Ends With Us worth watching?
It Ends With Us does have plenty of problems, but considering the dangerous line it treads, it could have turned out a lot worse. The filmmakers’ best decision in bringing this novel to the screen was casting Blake Lively in the lead role, as she single-handedly adds layers of emotion to the film that it wouldn’t otherwise have.
It Ends With Us hits theaters on August 9.
7/10
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