Movie Review: It Ends With Us (2024)

Genre: Romantic Drama  

Director: Justin Baldoni  

Starring: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Brandon Sklenar, Jenny Slate  

Running Time: 130 minutes  

Synopsis: Soon after her abusive father dies, Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) embarks on a romance with neurosurgeon Ryle (Justin Baldoni). Ryle's sister Allysa (Jenny Slate) also becomes Lily's business partner in a flower shop boutique. In flashbacks, Lily recalls her first love with high school classmate Atlas, who was escaping an abuse-filled household. Back in the present, a chance encounter with Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), now a restaurateur, disrupts Lily's life just as Ryle starts to exhibit anger management issues.

What Works Well: In this adaptation of Colleen Hoover's book, the better-late-than-never final act finally arrives at the powerful intersection of awakening and initiative, the core domestic abuse subject matter tackled with intellect, emotion, and sensitivity. The resolutions suffer from over-tidiness, but are delivered with subtle power. Sparkling Boston locations help alleviate the tedium of the sappy music soundtrack.

What Does Not Work As Well: The languid opening 100 minutes wallow within sleep-inducing romantic pastels devoid of sharp edges, drowning in repetition and just barely hinting at the darkness underneath. The pacing is slow, the acting ponderous, and the dialogue more artificially tiresome than savvy. Overall, the duration is far too long for the available material.

Conclusion: Plenty of fluff, but the showdown with demons lurking within dream relationships is worth waiting for.



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