“It Ends With Us,” directed by Justin Baldoni, is a movie adaptation of the New York Times Bestselling book of the same title which was written by Colleen Hoover. The movie was released in theaters on Aug. 9, 2024, after being in production for over two years. The filming and production of the movie had been postponed due to the Writers Guild of America workers strike in 2023.
The book, which was released Aug. 2, 2016, is a story about domestic violence and breaking the cycle of abuse in a family, mirrored after the author’s own past experience from her childhood. It reached international fame, and is well praised in the book community. However, the movie has been criticized heavily since even before the release.
“I have not seen the movie, so I can’t say whether or not the film depicts the message in a respectful way or not, but I don’t like the way the interviews have been showing the message,” said FVHS teacher Julia McClannon.
Blake Lively, the actor portraying the main character, Lily Bloom, has been under heavy media backlash for her promotionals and endorsements involving the movie, as have many of the other actors.
In an Instagram post on the movie’s official account, Lively said, “So grab your friends and wear your florals,” during her reminder of the movie’s eventual release.
This comment induced a romanticized image of the movie, and not only made the actor seem ignorant, it also undermined the true message of the movie. While social media posts and interviews were beginning to circulate around the internet involving the movie, many fans noticed the absence of the director of the movie, Justin Baldoni, who also plays Ryle Kincaid, Lily’s love interest and eventual abuser. It was not long until some started investigating as to why the director was absent from the promotionals.
Throughout this whole ordeal, Baldoni was the only one out of the entire cast to make the message of the movie clear, and educate others about not only what the movie represents, but how to help others going through the same things Lily went through. He made sure that message was portrayed well on his end, though the same cannot be said about the other members of the production.
“Domestic violence is a very serious topic, and people who are survivors of domestic violence are kind of defined by that experience. It is a part of them. It is a part of who they are, and they do carry that with them into all of their experiences that they live through.” said McClannon.
McClannon, along with many other fans of the book, agrees that the promotions and marketing of the movie were not taken as seriously as it should have been. Rather, it was misinterpreted into a romantic comedy rather than a depiction of a real-world situation.
While yes, it is a story about a woman who learns to stand strong on her own, open her own business, and learn from her past mistakes, the idea behind the story is to show that cycles can be ended. Generational trauma, domestic violence, and many other situations passed down through the years can be broken. People can make that decision and choose to not submit themselves to lives they swore they would never experience for themselves. Lily is meant to be a role model in that way. We can take many other traits from her character, but her significance is that she made a decision, on her own, to leave her abuser and to better the life of her child.
The issue involving the cast is that they are truly missing the opportunity to speak up on an issue in society. They are missing the true meaning of the story and are misrepresenting the themes in this movie. Being educated when it involves heavy topics like domestic violence is key to releasing a movie such as this. Topics as heavy as this should be talked about in an educated, well-knowledgeable and factual manner.
“I always want to make sure that I have the facts and that I have everybody’s viewpoint considered, and that I’m not offending or hurting anybody in the process of getting the correct message across. And so, I think that as long as books and movies and media are doing that, and they’re coming from a place of truth, and fact, without bias, that is something we can move forward with,” said McClannon.
