It Ends With Us - An Odd Detour from Crucial Themes (Movie Review)

It's no news that when it comes to movie adaptations, the books are 90% of the times, always better. It is something I agree with but that doesn't deter me from hoping that one day, there'll be a movie adaptation of one of my favourite books that'll convey everything in the book just as perfectly.

It Ends With Us is a movie that caused quite the sensation before it's release date because, according to readers worldwide, almost all the character castings were wrong. I had read the book too but I wasn't so enthusiastic about the movie. Reason being that I didn't really like the book on which the movie was based my chances of liking the movie were very slim.

Well, yesterday, I was really bored and I decided to watch this movie since I had it downloaded already. I'll be reviewing the movie It Ends with Us and I'm definitely not going to center on the differences between the book and the movie. I'll be sharing my opinions as a viewer, not as a reader.

Source
It Ends with Us is a 2hr 10mins movie that is based on a book with the same title. written by Colleen Hoover. It follows a young girl, Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) after her father's death. She happens to meet a guy named Ryle Kincaid, a neurosurgeon (Justin Baldoni) on the eve of her father's memorial who is insanely attracted to her. They both share truths about their lives with each other but their meeting is cut short when Ryle is called upon for an impromptu surgery. Lily and Ryle meet again when her new employee who happens to be Ryle's sister, invites him to Lily's flower shop. This marks the start of Lily and Ryle's love story but there are certain realities about their pasts that threatens their relationship along the line.

There were quite a number of things to like about this movie and a number of things to not like about this movie. Justin's acting for one, I loved it. His eyes conveyed emotions really well and it was beautiful to watch. His attraction to Lily was very visible in his acting and that was the highlight of it for me. Aside acting, Ryle was a very nice character that could have been more if given the right character development. And if he wasn't so flawed, he would have been such a green flag.

I loved that the movie portrayed how life throws one in situations where your beliefs and stances are questioned. That aspect where after all the decisions you've made not to accept this and that, if you're not strong-willed, you see yourself accepting "this" and "that" and even more because the "this" and "that" appears polished and rosy on the outside. There was a statement by a character in the movie that said 'Staying was easier but leaving was harder'. That was the only thing I liked about Lily as a character. Her resilience. It only made sense that she didn't decide to stay just because staying was easier but left because it was the best thing to do.

As a viewer, there wasn't really much to like about Lily. Apart from the decision she made at the end which was one I liked, she was a boring character. And Blake's acting didn't do anything to help matters. Her acting seemed forced. She claimed she loved Ryle but there was nothing in her expressions that said she loved Ryle. She made Lily appear even more boring as a character. I believe she and Ryle could have had more chemistry as actors if her acting wasn't so emotionless. Aside Ryle, there really was no character I liked. They were all mostly meh in actions so I didn't find them worth liking.

I do not like messy love stories. And this, was one. The whole Lily, Ryle and Atlas (her childhood love) thing was too complicated for my liking. Lily and Atlas's love could have been simpler and beautiful under better circumstances. Lily and Ryle could have been better as well. This made me tired somewhat because it actually was one reason I didn't like the book. The fact that it tried to touch on the theme of domestic violence but it was swept under the rug with the messy love stories made me dislike it.

Aside the above, the movie was just okay. The cinematography and soundtracks did well to give the very fast-paced movie a nice flow. There might be a sequel to this movie since there's one for the book on which this was based.

I'll rate this movie 4/10. It didn't serve to cure my boredom and I doubt it'll be among the movies I'll ever recommend to others.

Thanks for reading

Posted Using InLeo Alpha