7 Reasons Why Reviews Are So Mixed For Blake Lively's New Romantic Drama Movie

Warning! This article contains minor SPOILERS for The End of Us.

Summary

• “Finish With Us” received mixed reviews for its script and performances, but is poised to be a success despite the criticism.
• The film does not romanticize abuse, but deals with the dark subject in a grounded and shocking way.
• Although Lively and Baldoni shine in their performances, the film has been criticized for lackluster character development and dragging sequences.

New romantic drama It ends with usStarring Blake Lively, it received mixed reviews due to its script, performances, and ability or inability to adapt the source material. It ends with us It's based on Colleen Hoover's book of the same name, which first came out in 2016 and took bands by storm. The script has been adapted. Grandfather with writer Christy Hall Jane the Virgin's Justin Baldoni pulls double duty as director and Lively's co-star.

Despite the film having a strong opening weekend at the box office, reviews It ends with us does not reflect the audience's love for him. It has a strong 94% Audience Rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but only 59% on Tomato, suggesting that audiences and critics are not seeing eye to eye. The It ends with us the book is controversial, so it's no surprise that the movie isn't universally loved. Despite all the pros and cons, It ends with us becomes a success.

7 Important events in it are finished with laziness

Finishing With Us Makes Everything Very Comfortable

It ends with us Follows a woman named Lily Bloom Through flashbacks to his high school years and the present day, he highlights the cycle of abuse he eventually broke. It has a few important connections, but the way they start is almost too convenient. Lily's high school crush is a homeless boy named Atlas whom she only sees through a window. Later it turned out that at the same time, he only saw her through the window.

Her meeting with Ryle, who becomes her husband, is similarly coincidental. Lily hides on the roof of Ryle's apartment building, where they have a deep conversation that nearly ends in sex after he angrily barges in, even though he doesn't live there. A few months later, a woman named Allysa, who hates flowers, stumbles into Lily's house. flower shop and hiring on the spot. Of course, she turns out to be Ryle's sister and brings him back into her life. Like Julian Roman MovieWeb wrote, “The film brings characters together without providing convincing reasons.”

6 It Ends With Us Doesn't Romanticize Abuse

It Ends With Us Sometimes It's Dark

One of the biggest positives It ends with us is not to romanticize abuse. Colleen Hoover's book is commonly accused of this because it is often marketed as a romance novel, even though it is a dark, dramatic account of domestic violence. From the release It ends with us trailer, it was clear they were going in a different direction. CBR reviewer Hannah Rose noted, “The depictions of domestic violence are not sensationalized or graphic, but still read as grounded and shocking.”

Depicting abuse in this way can be difficult because it's easy for these stories to turn into trauma porn. There's not a lot of violence that the film is all about, but it's not glossed over either. Isabella Soares Collider he even pointed out that there is progress It ends with us from the book to the movie, like the movie “wastes no time in taking Ryle back from his actions.Despite her charm, Lily is so horrible that even in her sweetest moments, she can't be seen as a good person.

5 Sequences drag on too long

Finishing With Us is Over 2 Hours Long

It ends with us the time is 2 hours and 10 minutessome may find it a little too long for the story. The book is 384 pages, so the movie has a lot to cover, but given how much was removed when adapting for the big screen, a few extra minutes could have been shaved off. The most It ends with us It is spent establishing Lily and Ryle's relationship. This helps build suspense and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats waiting for the moment Ryle finally pulls it off.

However, he also does It ends with us drag at some points. The romantic sequences and montages get a bit tiresome after a while and it almost makes the audience want to skip to the darker parts. As a result, when the film finally cuts to the crucial domestic violence scenes, the audience gets tired and starts checking how much time is left. CBR's Rose felt that some sequences were too long, a sentiment likely shared by many audience members and critics.

4 The Characters of End With Us are Very Thin

Ends With Us Doesn't Have Enough Depth To Its Characters

Unfortunately, despite all this time to develop the characters It ends with usthey still manage to come off pretty straight by the end of the movie. This is likely due to changes It ends with us book. There is much more that can be narrated from the third person point of view than the first person point of view that Lily offers in the book. As mentioned above, there is also an issue with how poorly constructed the characters and their relationships are.

Character, of course It ends with us Explores Lily the most deeply because she is the main character and the center of the flashbacks and modern timeline. As mentioned above, perhaps too much time is spent building up Ryle and Lily's relationship, and less time to focus on her as an individual once they're together. In The Hollywood ReporterLovia Gyarke calls the characters “ptubbornly tender,” he said, noting that Allysa and Lily's friendship was not particularly developed.

3 Atlas's Character Arc is Concluded in Ending With Us

Atlas Had a Bigger Role in End With Us

Of all the characters It ends with usAtlas is definitely the most underdeveloped. It's a shame considering he plays such a big role in the books. The film tries to give Atlas depth through flashbacks, but he only appears sporadically in the present, and his brief scenes aren't enough to give him a character beyond being Lily's first love and savior. With the tropes she fills in, the script doesn't do much to establish her character beyond them.

This makes Atlas feel more like a plot device than a character. It would have been nice to have more of present-day Atlas in the story, but again, it's asking too much. It ends with usa film that is already a bit too long. Soares called the existence of the adult Atlas “a note,” is a great juxtaposition from the book. Brandon Klenar does the most with the little he gives and adaptation of the sequel, It starts with us, could have allowed him to shine more.

2 Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni give great performances

Starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's performances have been praised by almost everyone, although the script has received a lot of criticism from reviewers. As the leads, they must carry and convey the emotional weight of the film. This is one of Lively's best roles as she navigates her conflicted emotions towards her husband when he abuses Lily. Lily is in denial at first, which makes things even harder to watch. Lively captures Lily's journey to acceptance in a heartbreakingly beautiful way.

Baldoni had the difficult task of making Ryle likable at first, but ultimately not very sympathetic. It's understandable how he falls for Lily's charm and good looks, and Baldoni nails the change in her demeanor, making it jarring and easy to understand why she buys Lily's initial excuses. Roman Baldoni's portrayal of Ryle as “Jekyll and Hyde.” Soares noted that Baldoni brings enough depth to Ryle that viewers understand why Lily falls for him, but not so much that viewers want Lily to stay with him as her mother.

1 Finish with us

End With Us doesn't spend enough time with Lily's decision to leave

It ends with us takes its name from Lily telling Ryle she wants a divorce, breaking the cycle of abuse that began with her parents. She sweetly tells her newborn daughter:Finish with us,” telling her that she would never be subjected to the abuse she witnessed as a child and suffered as an adult. However, most of the time spent between when Lily leaves Riley and the end of the film is brief and mostly told through montages and quick cutscenes, so much so that it almost feels rushed and undermines how difficult it is to leave an abusive relationship.

Sarah Hunter Simonson HuffPost noted that by extracting key conversations with Atlas and Ryle, It ends with us “It sidesteps the harsh realities of Lily's bravery [when] it is necessary for such cultural images to give hope and at the same time prove the possibility of escaping this cycle.” in his review for The Daily BeastNick Shager agreed. He wrote that “Bn fairy tale-style ending, End With Us completely shakes its protagonist, his struggle to overcome his predicament—with the help of an ideal support group—not a struggle at all.” The final moments of the film were undeniably poignant It ends with us the most.

Sources: Rotten Tomatoes, MovieWeb, CBR, Collider, HuffPost, The Daily Beast