TW: this story mentions abusive relationships and talks about domestic violence
Although I had not read the book, I went into the theater on Sunday, knowing exactly what It Ends With Us was going to be about. I did not expect to be leaving the movie in tears. My sister, friend and I spontaneously decided to watch the movie for fun on a random Saturday night. However, just a few minutes in, we realized just how much of an emotional rollercoaster it was going to be.
One of the things that was most confusing to me was the fact that the movie was advertised as a blithe, happy romance. Actress Blake Lively, playing the main character, Lily Bloom, especially advertised the film as light-hearted, as opposed to her co-star, actor Justin Baldoni, playing the main male lead, Ryle Kincaid. The movie itself was the opposite of how Lively’s press portrayed it. While there were parts that made me laugh, it was mostly an intense and overwhelmingly sad movie. That’s why I had such mixed emotions leaving the theatre. I do love a film that will make me both laugh and cry, but this one felt intense throughout the entire thing. It was full of arguing and suspense, and there were no parts that even somewhat gave the vibe of a feel-good romance.
Even though I went into the movie knowing it contained some abusive relationships, I didn’t know how much it was going to affect me. Throughout the movie, the most intense and awful scenes were filmed from the point of view of Lily Bloom and her experience of the situations. Her unreliable narration of the domestic violence made them seem like accidents; it felt like I was being manipulated through every scene. My friend even kept saying, “There’s no way he’s hurting her on purpose,” until the very end of the movie. Near the end, it showed us how those scenes really played out; what the audience had seen originally, wasn’t what really happened at all.
I thoroughly enjoyed the way they chose to film the movie. It was interesting seeing how much Lily was either oblivious to or in denial about her abusive relationship until, all at once, she realized that her relationship with Ryle wasn’t what she thought it was.
The end of the movie was the part that really got me. There were such intense scenes that it didn’t feel like a light-hearted movie at all. I’m not sure if I laughed more than three times for the duration, and I prefer movies that have some happy scenes to balance out the sad ones. It was a great movie, but only if whoever’s watching it is looking for something intense. Because of all of the heated scenes, my friend cried throughout the entire movie. It did get more and more intense throughout the film, but I didn’t feel the need to cry until the last ten or so minutes. The intensity was built up so strongly through the film that by the end, when it all piled on at once, I couldn’t do anything to stop myself from leaving the theater in tears.
