It Ends With Us (2024) [Movie review]

It Ends With Us is based on a book that most women forgot at either the airport or the beach. Then, they recommended it to their friends who either never read it or have it on an Amazon wishlist. So, when you actually go see the movie or watch the trailers being blasted in between segments of your favorite YouTube videos, something will stand out. This is a movie about domestic abuse. Long-time book readers will go duh, but for the vast majority of adults who haven’t read since they were being graded on information retention, it will be new.

Domestic abuse as adult YA novel fodder

I really don’t understand why the current three generation model of narrative consumers can’t grow above childish and teenage interests. The rise of Young Adult fare over the last 10-15 years has been stunning to watch play out. Blake Lively’s Lily Bloom could be 16 or 23 or 35 or 40. It doesn’t matter, as she acts like a young girl regardless of her age stumbling into things that are above her mental pay grade. She has dreams of starting her own business, getting past her father’s death and finding love.

When she meets a young doctor named Ryle, things are looking great. She’s moving on and life is good. Then, he starts shaking her up and smacking her around. He’s doing it because he killed his brother as a kid and is prone to fits of rage. But, Lily thinks she can change him. Things are good until she gets pregnant and realizes that she has to break the cycle of abuse. And by break, I mean leaving Ryle and not by breaking things with her face or falling down the stairs.

Seriously, the underpinnings of this movie are messed up

I know that this audience and our main audience don’t align perfectly. But, the odds of some of you seeing this by force are pretty high. When watching the movie, realize that most of the abuse starts when Ryle realizes that Lily is still in love with her childhood sweetheart Atlas. Don’t worry, people. Very few characters have real names in this movie, so just go along with Tina Belcher’s Erotic Friend Fan Fiction for a bit. All of the domestic abuse is used to set up the fulfillment of Lily’s wildest dreams until she realizes she can have the same life without Ryle beating her ass on the reg.

Much has been made of the original’s author desire to age up the characters and trying to give them more agency in the film vs. the book. I don’t know what happened with that, as it still feels like a couple of dumb 20 year olds who were beating each other for attention. I would love to sit down with a group of young people after watching the movie and trying to get their take on what they saw vs. their parents.

It Ends With Us was shot like a TV show

Given the director’s background in TV, it doesn’t surprise anyone how much It Ends With Us looks like a premium basic cable show. While I liked Jane the Virgin and it’s how I first met the director’s work, there’s a reason why all of the TV trappings don’t quite land on the silver screen. It’s an aesthetic and mental disconnect that stems from seeing something outside of the venue where you were used to seeing it. Don’t believe me? It’s why Sex and the City 2 didn’t land vs. the original film. Honestly, it’s the reason we are probably never getting a Simpsons Movie sequel.

The novelty of a change-up works once, but eventually people will realize they are watching TV styled melodramas at a premium price. What they shut their brain off to watch on TV at home is something they will actively antagonize on the silver screen. But why? Well, the answer is simple…they will clamor for something when the cost of entry is low. However, the cost of going to see a movie at the theatrical level is immense.

Now, cut to It Ends With Us having a terrific opening weekend and people trying to debunk the claim. To that I say, check in with me next weekend. Adaptations of popular books always get that first time bump, but the legs go out quicker than a deer on ice.

Who was this for?

It Ends with Us has a big fan among the books for women who hate JD Vance segment. They will carry it to big numbers for the first weekend, but they are the fixed audience for it. Newer audience won’t try to discover It Ends with Us until the film hits Netflix or some other streaming service. It doesn’t mean they hate the movie, it’s again back to the barrier of entry.

I really mean it…who demanded this?

Audience segmentation is insane anymore. What used to be a market segment of 4 or 5 audience types is now at least check…a sample size of 80. What’s odd is when you realize how much that number has increased since 2010. Is it paralysis analysis bleeding deeper into the entertainment that we love? Not sure. But, I can’t recommend It Ends with Us to anyone outside of the Hoover die-hards.

On the upside, this will have a new life in years in bargain bins and deep streaming directories as a curiosity

There are always films from decades back that people love to whip out for personal comedy. Don’t believe me? Try to stream “Making Love” anywhere and report back to me.

It Ends With Us is now in theaters