It Ends With Us

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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Justin Baldoni directs a bestselling melodrama “It Ends with Us,” based on the popular novel by Colleen Hoover. Despite its best intentions and compelling performances by Blake Lively and Jenny Slate, the story cannot escape its soapy trappings and the Hallmark card predictability. It is confined by its own TV movie format.

Neurosurgeon Ryle (director Baldoni) is having a tantrum after an unsuccessful surgery. Lilly (Blake Lively) just lost her dad and is overcome with melancholy. After a questionnaire the two realize they have a connection and Ryle makes a pass. Then, right before the first smooch he is called to an emergency.

The two say goodbye.

Lilly has the means to purchase a storefront for a flower shop. Allysa (Jenny Slate) inquires about a job even though she’s allergic to flowers. Lily is won over by the self-deprecating Allysa and hires her on the spot.

Suddenly two men appear at the window. One of them is Ryle, who is Allysa’s brother. Ryle and Lilly lock eyes and they are mutually smitten. At first, romance smiles upon them, but behind Ryle’s handsome submissiveness is a violent and dark side.

Lilly’s mind travels back to Atlas (Alexander Neustaedter), a troubled teen and Lilly’s first love. He was kind and painfully empathetic. Atlas lived on the street.

One night, Ryle is cooking. By accident he burns his hand on the stove. In an instant, Ryle becomes enraged and knocks Lilly to the ground. Her head impacts with broken glass. Ryle is mortified. It was an accident, it had to be.

As fate would have it, an adult Atlas (Brandon Sklenar) is the owner of Ryle’s favorite restaurant. Seeing her, Atlas is floored and blushes, but later, he notices the bruise on Lilly’s face. Understandably, protection rises to the fore. Ryle and Atlas fight violently. Ryle has demons indeed and he takes on the aura of Lilly’s late father, an extremely angry and savage man.

 

Lilly increasingly pines for Atlas. Ryle is prone to rages. He intentionally baits Lilly. She is horrified. Ryle and Lilly marry, seemingly a loving couple, but a monster is within.

The co-dependency and fear in the story is very real and striking. Baldoni has genuine menace and Lively illustrates her anxiety along with her hopes and need for harmony very authentically. It is only the sequence of events that seem unreal. Right after a brutal scene of violent rape, Lilly suggests that Ryle hold their infant daughter. A smile beams from Lilly. Given that Ryle is so violent, savage and cold, I doubt she would be so affectionate and forthcoming. Ryle is deeply disturbed. A few scenes before, he intentionally pushes Lilly down a flight of stairs. Ryle is so aggressive as a Jekyll and Hyde, that it is hard to care for him in a romantic manner.

Both incarnations of Atlas are well handled in a Romeo & Juliet manner and this portion of the story is watchable.

Jenny Slate is excellent as the quasi-humorous friend and this is the comedian’s best role.

Ryle is a joyless wolf here and it is difficult for more nuanced eyes to open upon this character. After Ryle reveals himself as a beast, the energy of the film dissipates. He is either a scary brute or a sad hound. There is precious little love voltage and it ends with a swell of music and hints of spring with some dreamy eyed looks from Atlas. The emotion of love is a highly charged adventurous force, but this aspect of spontaneity and magic is dispensed with in favor of Hallmark happiness and floral sprays.

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com