Domestic abuse normalized in “It Ends With Us”
The new movie “It Ends with Us,” based on the popular Colleen Hoover novel, has caused an uproar of internet drama. The book was originally published in 2016 and was a hit, however, in recent years it has sparked a huge debate, thanks to BookTok.
The story follows Lily Bloom, played by Blake Lively, who moves to Boston to open her own flower shop. Upon arriving she meets Ryle, played by Justin Baldoni, a neurosurgeon, and they fall in love, diving into a relationship. However, early on, Ryle begins to show signs of being an abusive partner, a quality that harshly reminds Lily of her own parents’ relationship that plagued her childhood. Lily lives with the abuse of Ryle, convincing herself that these incidents are mere ‘accidents,’ but the abuse she faces takes a harsh turn when Lily’s first love Atlas comes back into her life. Ryle becomes very angry with Atlas’ presence and history in Lily’s life, and acts progressively more violent toward Lily.
In May of 2023, the “It Ends with Us” movie officially started filming. Paparazzi caught multiple photos of Lively and Baldoni filming and people were very upset with the choices being made. First, lots of book fans have pointed out the actors’ ages do not match those of their characters. For example, Lily Bloom is 23-years-old in the books, while Lively is 37-years-old, more than 10 years older. The same situation has happened with Baldoni’s character. Ryle is 30-years-old in the books, and Baldoni is 40-years-old, again a significant age difference. Although Hoover and Baldoni have justified aging up the characters to have a more universal story, fans are still upset because their views were changed. Another aspect of the film fans pointed out were the wardrobe choices. Lively was photographed wearing very outlandish outfits, which fans claim is not accurate to the character and not how they originally pictured Lily Bloom.
Later in the year controversy over the author Colleen Hoover was raised. Hoover has a very bubbly writing style which contradicts the discussion of harsh and heavy topics such as domestic abuse. Many readers have claimed this has manipulated young girls to normalize or glorify abuse. For example, there have been various videos on TikTok of young women saying they would have forgiven Ryle for his actions.
The controversy over this book-turned-movie not only surrounds Hoover, but leading actress Lively as well. Lively has been under heavy criticism from fans because of how she has acted during interviews and press events for “It Ends With Us”. Lively has jumped around the abusive plot of the movie, and treated it as a romcom, going so far as telling fans to “grab your friends, wear your florals, and head on out to see it” in a promotional video released on her Instagram. Lively is also criticized for using the movie to promote her new haircare line, Blake Brown, instead of using it to promote ways to help victims of domestic violence, the direction Baldoni wanted to take with the press. Many fans are accusing Lively of trying to make “It Ends With Us” and “Deadpool and Wolverine” the new ‘Barbenheimer’, as she has continuously brought up her husband Ryan Reynolds, the scene he wrote in the movie and his new movie. People are calling Lively’s support “tone-deaf” because of her attitude in the press and lack of awareness of domestic violence.
Although none of the cast or production crew have confirmed any bad blood between Baldoni and others, fans have noticed that Baldoni did not walk the red carpet with Lively and other cast members. Similarly when doing press and interviews, the rest of the cast is seen together while Baldoni is completely absent. Along with the separation, Baldoni and the other cast mates seem to promote and speak about the movie in very different lights. Baldoni shares and spreads awareness of the effects of domestic abuse while the rest of the cast is more focused on the love triangle in the movie, calling it “fun and romantic.” Furthermore, Lively and Baldoni have even promoted different posters of the movie both portraying contrasting aspects of the movie, Lively’s being the official colorful and flashy movie poster, and Baldoni’s is darker and more unsettling. Before the release of the movie, Lively streamed her ‘preferred cut’ of the movie for fans, revealing that there were two different cuts of the movie made, one by Baldoni, and one by Lively, who reportedly wanted to act as the film’s director. The final released cut of the movie included many of Lively’s edits, including her ‘feminine touches’. Amidst all this drama, it is important for fans to remember that this movie should not only be talked about for its publicity drama, but for the awareness of domestic violence it brings to people of all ages.
