Drama by Hair
It’s ‘Don’t worry darling’ all over again as the gossip outpaces the film for engaging drama.
It Ends with Us
Director: Justin Baldoni • Writer: Christy Hall, based on the novel by Colleen Hoover
Starring: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Isabela Ferrer, Jenny Slate, Amy Morton
USA • 2hrs 10mins
Opens Hong Kong Sep 18 • IIA
Grade: C
In It Ends With Us – no shit – Lily Blossom Bloom (Blake Lively) is a dazzlingly tressed budding (see what I did there?) flower shop owner who, it appears, breaks into a random Boston apartment? office? building to sit on the roof and contemplate the funeral for her father she stormed out of earlier in the day. Up comes hunky, rich, neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni, pulling double duty as director) and if that’s not a fucking romance novel name I don’t know what is, to contemplate… something. Probably how this strange woman broke into his building. Because they are both blindingly attractive white people they flirt and share “naked truths” because they think they’ll never see each other again. Wrong! Turns out Allysa (Jenny Slate) – the wild and crazy gal who walks into Lily’s WIP shop and finagles a job and BFF-hood out of her – is Ryle’s sister. Who knew? Despite Ryle not being “into commitment” he and Lily get into a torrid romance, one that slowly turns toxic and has Lily making excuses for Ryle’s tantrums and her black eyes. The sour turn forces Lily to reflect on her first/one true love Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar) – again with the names! – the boy from the broken home across the street who really liked to cook, and who it just so happens has become Beantown’s hippest restaurateur. He has eyes like deep wells. Probably. Eventually Ryle starts acting exactly like Lily’s dad Andrew (always welcome Kevin McKidd, cashing a cheque), who spent his entire marriage abusing Lily’s mother Jenny (Amy Morton). And so the cycle continues.
Good hair = good mood
The alleged fallout between stars Lively and Baldoni has been in the new cycle since the film was released in August and promptly became a sleeper hit, hauling in over US$300 million on a paltry budget. The drama started because the stars weren’t on the pimping circuit together, unfollowed each other on Instagram (gasp, clutching my pearls) and Baldoni hired a high-powered spin doctor after jibes about how maybe Lively should direct the sequel herself among others. Oh, and Lively tapped her husband Ryan Reynolds’s editor to make her own cut of the film. Now, Don’t Worry Darling’s off-screen drama was more hilarious, and even though that film was a hot mess, I think I’d rather sit through that again if need be. Because despite the “important” content producer-star Lively, Baldoni and evidently Reynolds think they’re bravely tackling, It Ends With Us is a by-the-numbers romantic melodrama that wouldn’t be out of place on Lifetime. It hits all the beats – the impossible bone structure, the meet cute, the coincidental mutual friend, the personality quirk that threatens to separate the sweethearts, the threat of The Other Person, the resolution that sets the protagonist on the path to happy-ever-after with the correct partner. Hanging a rote, banal romance on the framework of a domestic violence drama – wherein the “personality quirk” is the dude’s penchant for paint-brushing his girlfriend – is gross, even if author Colleen Hoover, CoHo to her devoted legions, based the story on her own parents (didn’t read it, won’t read it). This is more like Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey than it wants to admit, both of those towering examinations of power dynamics and abusive partnerships. Ahem.
Adapted by Christy Hall, who penned and directed the drudgery of Daddio, It End With Us is as much product as anything by Marvel. Blake Lively product. She’s not terrible, but the light touch regarding abuse – all fuzzy frames, shadows, extreme undefinable close-ups and ultra-quick flashes – neuter any message about the cycles of violence the film might be trying to deliver, transforming it into a tragic soap opera featuring lovers trying to rise above adversity. It’s DV as filtered through the Lively Brand, with her hair telling us what her emotional state is. If it’s buoyant and flowing things between Lily and Ryle are good. If it’s tangled and dry looking, not so much. Ryle comes this close to being a batterer because he loves Lily so much he can’t help himself. Barf. Can someone please make a plain statement: He’s an asshole who hits women. Done. Yes, Lily takes the difficult step of extricating herself from a bad marriage; that’s not a spoiler, it’s in the title. And even Allysa counsels dumping his ass, but said extrication is all respectful and mature. In reality we all know it would involve restraining orders, multiple calls to emergency services, threats, stalking and a shit ton of booze. But that would be off brand, so what we get is a not-too-upsetting (or graphic), gauzy romance that allows us to admire Lively’s hair – and maybe buy some of her new product and get that look for ourselves. This movie is bullshit. — DEK