The film It Ends With Us, is based on the novel It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. It gives the audience a better idea of what a relationship that contains domestic violence could be like. It is almost garunteed to tug at your heartstrings. This film could best be described as an emotional and relatable depiction of a woeful romance.
To begin, the main character, Lily Blossom Bloom, drove back to Maine, her home state, to deliver the eulogy at her fathers funeral. She grew up watching her father, they mayor of her hometown, hit, rape, and yell at her mom day after day. She attempted to follow through on the eulogy and list five things that she loved about him. Lily could not name one. She did not respect her father, and was always trying to cast out anything or anyone that reminded her of him and the ugly scars that he left on her and her mom.
Lily moved to Boston Massachusetts to pursue her dreams, specifically of becoming a florist. She had always had a knack for gardening. After the funeral, she ran to the top floor of a random apartment building to look at the beautiful city lights as she tried to forget about the celebration of life that she had just destroyed. She then ran into Ryle Kincaid. He is a neurosurgeon and has had a night just as bad as Lily’s. He is an aggressive man. He begins kicking chairs in an attempt to deal with the pain that was consuming him. He and Lily end up hitting it off and spend the majority of the night talking and discovering everything about each other that they could possibly gather.
Six months after she inherited money from her father, she used it to open up her flower shop, which she named “Lily Bloom’s”. The day she begins to renovate the space that she will use for her shop, her soon to be best friend, Alyssa, ran into the shop explaining how she thinks the space is absolutely adorable, and how she can not wait to see how it will be decorated. She also begged Lily to give her a job, as she wants something entertaining to do to fill her time with since she does not have to work. (Her husband makes more than enough money for the both of them.) To Lily’s great surprise, Alyssa and Ryle are siblings. Alyssa, Alyssa’s husband Marshall, Ryle, and Lily begin to spend time together and all become very close friends. Ryle and Lily however, become much more than friends.
Lily and a character that the audience will grow to love, Atlas Corrigan, have a twisted history, which is revealed to the viewer through Lily’s memories, which began to come back to her as she read her old diaries, which were written to her teenage self’s idol, Ellen Degeneres. Atlas was desperate to leave Maine and work towards a better life, but he stayed and was there for Lily’s every need. He stood strong for her even though he was going through the hardest time of his life. He snuck into the old, rickety, abandoned house behind Lily’s, in the hope of committing suicide. His first look at Lily made him stop himself. Maybe love at first sight really does exist. She fed him, let him shower in her house, let him borrow her dad’s clothes, and let him stay at home with her when her parents were at work. They fell deeply in love with each other. One day, they were hanging out in her room together and he was telling her about how he was going to move to Boston one day, eventually enlist in the military, and then move back to Boston to pursue his dream of working in the culinary industry. The hot chocolate cookies that he made Lily one day were a great sign to Lily that he would succeed in that career field. The same night that Atlas was telling Lily all of this, her dad walked in on them and beat Atlas with a baseball bat. He nearly died. He had to be driven to the hospital in an ambulance. That situation pained Lily more than she ever thought something could pain her.
Lily had been to Atlas’s restaurant, “Root”, twice. Once with her mom and Ryle, and another time with Alyssa, Marshall, and Ryle, to celebrate Alyssa’s newfound pregnancy. The first time she visited his restaurant, they just caught up about their lives, but the second time, Atlas and Ryle got into a horrible fight because of Lily’s black eye. Ryle burned his hand taking a dish out of the oven one day, and hit Lily out of anger when she laughed because of it. Atlas thought that Ryle had hit Lily, and was furious. Altas knew about Lily’s past with abuse, but Ryle did not.
The abuse only continued when Ryle pushed Lily down the stairs for believing that she still had feelings for Atlas. Atlas had placed his phone number in Lily’s phone case just in case she ever needed anything, which had initially caused Ryles anger. Her feeling like there was a need to keep his number should have been a sign that she should have left Ryle then and there. When Alyssa found out about what had happened, she demanded that Ryle had to tell Lily about his childhood trauma, as it had led to his unfavorable mental state. Apparently, he accidentally killed his brother Emerson by shooting him in his head when they were young kids, playing a game of police officers. That is also why he chose to pursue a career in neurology.
Ryle’s anger reached an all time high when he read a magazine article about how Atlas’s restaurant had a lot to do with a very special woman to him, Lily. He attempted to rape Lily. He head-butted her so hard that she blacked out. She called Atlas for help after that. He took her to a hospital, where she discovered that she was pregnant with Ryle’s baby. Once her pregnancy neared its end and she delivered her daughter, she chose to name her Emerson, for Ryle, and his beloved younger brother. Lily divorced Ryle once she came to the ultimate decision that she needed to end her long struggle of abuse and not let her daughter grow up in the same circumstance that she did.
The overall message of this film can vary. Some could perceive it to be to know, remember, and value your self worth, to break unhealthy cycles, to cut off relationships that are negatively affecting you, to follow your heart, etc… This film takes so many emotional turns, and covers a lot of sensitive topics, such as abuse and death. Because of this, it is very easy for people to conjure up different ideas of what the movie is trying to tell the audience.
“I feel like it’s telling people that they can be better off by themselves, and that people should stick up for themselves,” said sophomore Faryn Williams.
Many have been, and will continue to be moved by this film, and let it influence how they hold themselves, and how they go about hardships in their day to day lives. It will likely make them want to stay clear of toxicity and try to become the best version of themselves. Getting emotional over a movie is a sign that it was made well. This film’s touching nature held a lot of power over people. It was a huge topic on social media. It was also a peak for many of the actors/actresses careers, like Blake Lively, who played Lily, and Justin Baldoni, who portrayed Ryle. The hype that the movie itself received, along with the actors and actresses, was said to be due to its extremely realistic scenes. If you watched it, you could probably tell that Ryle abusing Lily wasn’t very obvious at the beginning. This was to represent how Lily could tell that something was wrong with Ryle’s behavior, to represent why she was struggling to come to the decision to leave Ryle, and to represent how Lily did not want to believe the fact that Ryle was abusing her. Viewers resonated with this movie more than many others because of the connection they felt to it.
“To me, the most traumatic moment was after Lily gave birth to her and Ryle’s daughter,” said junior Moriah Pontiflet. “She asked him what he would tell their baby if she came home one night and told him that her boyfriend pushed her down the stairs, or he hit her but claimed that it was an accident, multiple times.”
The traumatic storyline in It Ends With Us definitely helped it earn the success it did. That success has grossed a whopping 349 million dollars since its release date of August 9th, 2024. With that being said, grief is not the only emotion to be highlighted from this movie. Rejoice and pleasure are also spotlighted. Lily fulfilling her lifelong dream of opening a flower shop, the celebration of new human life, Lily supporting Atlas and saving his life, new love, old love being rekindled, and eventful and exciting parties and nights all had great potential to lift the audience’s spirits.
This movie is definitely worth the watch, as it will leave you satisfied, and make you want to be kind and tend to yourself, which is very important, especially in today’s society, where there are a lot of mental blocks that can come peoples way.
