It Ends With Us

(Directed by Justin Baldoni, from the novel by Colleen Hoover) (2024)

Thanks to Guest Reviewer Rita, for sitting through this so we don’t have to. Her pithy synthesis is below, with our additional comments further on.

“What a woeful travesty! This film trivializes and romanticises the very serious subject of domestic violence and is downright insulting to the many true victims of this ongoing crime.

It fails in many ways…most notably it neglects to portray the fact that the most dangerous time for a woman entrapped in such an abusive relationship is when she summons the courage to leave. Give this film a miss.”

The Rom-Com genre is tired, overworked and lazy, but this entry appears to have seized upon a new wrinkle: Woman (‘Lily’) with a Past (her first love ‘Atlas’) suffers in a relationship with a chap rather quick with his hands (‘Ryle Kincaid’) – even the names spring straight from Mills-and-Boon, which seems to be CoHo’s oeuvre – but Lily thinks her love will change his ways…However, men who say how they’ve changed, never change.

The Varnished Culture posits a new business: Brothers Inc. For a modest fee, sensitive but tough blokes (the kind Scott Ryan plays in “Mr. Inbetween”) pay visits to abusive men and give them a taste of their own medicine.

In any case, a better film would focus on the litigious violence between Baldoni and star Blake Lively, their significant others and respective cohorts. Reports of alleged back-stabbing, double-dealing, harassment, libel and slander, ‘fat-shaming,’ shameless promotional exploitation of hair care products, legal suits and cross-suits accusing emotional abuse, intimidation, civil extortion and invasions of privacy, seeking multi-million dollar damages…how about a comedy drama called “It Ends in Court“?