The new movie “It Ends With Us,” based on the book by Colleen Hoover, has been a hit in the theaters this August. The movie stars Blake Lively as the character “Lily Bloom,” and the two male leads are played by Justin Baldoni (Ryle Kincaid) and Brandon Sklenar (Atlas Corrigan). While the acting was heart wrenching and strong, there were some moments the cast did not translate as well to the audience. In this review, I’m going to dive into the deep effects this movie cast out and how it was received by the majority of people.
First of all, Blake Lively is a wonderful actor, but many people say all of her roles feel the same. In this film, she played the character pretty well as it was given and fully went into the sympathetic, protagonist woman that Bloom is. I thought her acting was very believable at times, however, the costume designer, Eric Daman, who also worked with Lively on Gossip Girl, went a little too overboard by putting her in the “frumpiest” outfits possible, to try and match “every day women.” Lively used clothes from the closets of Ryan Reynolds, Gigi Hadid and her own, and the outfits were honestly just plain ugly and made me not enjoy her character as much. For the most part, Lively did a great job portraying this character with a few minor moments that just felt fake.
In my opinion, Ryle and Atlas carried this movie. When Lively’s acting started to feel “fake,” both of these characters came in strong and brought back that “real” effect. The emotions portrayed through both of these male leads were powerful, and they connected to Lively on a different level. Both males’ emotions framed this story in a way that I have missed seeing in todays films.
Even though some of the acting felt surface level, the contrast between the airy, romantic tone and the deeper themes made the film even more powerful.The cinematography was stunning, capturing the beauty of the city perfectly. The movie left out a lot of key story points, but it matched the setting almost perfectly to how I imagined it as I read the book. Something I also appreciated was the Taylor Swift songs that played behind the acting. A lot of times, movies choose random songs that aren’t as compelling, but the song “My Tears Ricochet” was the perfect choice to match the strong, powerful and sometimes frustrating feelings that were shown in the film.
Overall, this film is a good one to see with friends if you are craving a romance movie with twists and turns. The occasional plot twists and emotional spins will keep you focused on the film the whole time, but don’t expect phenomenal acting from everyone.
Rating: 6/10
