It Ends With Us Review: A Modern Love Triangle Mess!

★★★★★

Based on Colleen Hoover's novel of the same name, It Ends With Us is a modern love triangle that goes out in vain due to the soulless gestures of two of the leading characters out of three. I'd still feel for one character who hasn't gotten over his first love, but I definitely have no feelings or empathy for the other two, who have literally left this film with no meaning. I didn't mind the sexual appeal and intimacy, and until the interval, that Casablanca touch was working fine. But tell me, who can make another Casablanca? Even Michael Curtiz himself would give up on making such a masterpiece love triangle again. Why do others try? I couldn't understand it to date. Many have used the formula and turned it into a big mess, and It Ends With Us is on the same lines, with an external feminist touch to it. Unfortunately, it fails to make an impact, and the long narrative is a tad slow most of the time.

Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) has lost her father and meets a rich neurosurgeon, Ryle (Justin Baldoni), and their first conversation ends up with sexual advances that are left incomplete due to sudden circumstances. Why would they get so intimate in the first rough meeting? I couldn't gather. Lily and Ryle meet again as Ryle's sister, Allysa (Jenny Slate), is working at Lily's flower shop, and this time they begin dating. Despite warnings from Allysa, Lily falls in love with Ryle. The happy romance lives a short life as Lily sees her school-time boyfriend, Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), at a restaurant in the same town (Boston). We are taken to the flashback of young Lily and young Atlas' romance, and Atlas hasn't gotten over it yet. Has Lily really moved on? Will Ryle have no objections? There begins a mess!

With a screenplay by Christy Hall, It Ends With Us has many funny moments and intimate scenes that do entertain you for a while, but don't mean anything to the main context in which the narrative unfolds later. What goes terribly wrong in the entire conclusion portion in the last 30 minutes when all three characters seem to have their senses and behave as if something big has happened, when in reality nothing big has happened. Making a mountain out of a molehill works for some films, but not here. I didn't mind the extreme use of feminism when Lily made some tough choices, but all I am asking is that the opposite didn't deserve such harsh treatment when you yourself were hiding something from him. The same applies to the severely misogynistic Ryle, who happens to be overly possessive against overly insecure Lily. Atlas is safe but too much in love with Lily. 8 years, and the man didn't move on? Really? What if he had never met her again? The plot and screenplay don't look logical with such basic mistakes, and it continues to hurt the film as well as our viewing experience till the end.

Blake Lively looks hot and steamy—that was the plan, basically, since they did glamorize her with those glittering dresses, sexy attitude, and sultry scenes with Ryle. The chemistry with Justin Baldoni was fine, and it definitely arouses romantic interest in viewers. Justin losing his nerves in extremely important moments fails to convince you, which certainly makes the scenes look dull. Brandon Sklenar makes a pleasant entry but hasn't got any variety to showcase. Jenny Slate, as Jenny, is a total feminist that you can easily relate to. Amy Morton plays Lily's helpless and soulless mother with no extra effort, and Hasan Minhaj makes his small role look sweet with some party vibes.

The film was beautifully shot by Barry Peterson, and the art design, costumes, and production design all looked very gorgeous. The problem appears in dialogues that don't have depth. "The Naked Truth" could have been used subtly, but they wasted it for two sex-friendly people's lusty conversation. It Ends With Us ends with two ladies, oh, sorry, three (I hope it is not a spoiler)—now you can guess how dragged it is, but still there are those "coming-back," "forgive-me," and "back to first love" cliches that bore you even more than the entire film has done until then. Director Justin Baldoni sees a film as a problematic romance or a complex romantic relationship, but he couldn't see that the conflicts used for it aren't really problematic. In simple terms, exam results wouldn't matter if your questions had no meaning. It Ends With Us ends up with no realization of this simple equation, but more than that, it's the vision and pace that take you away from the film.