Colleen Hoover's 2016 novel about domestic abuse, "It Ends With Us", was a "monumental success" that was translated into 20 languages, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail.
"So now, inevitably, it's also been translated into the language of cinema, starring Blake Likely as the story's heroine Lily Bloom."
'Shallower than a toddler's paddling pool'
Bloom is a Boston florist struggling to process the death of her father, who was a pillar of his community but was also violent towards her mother.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
One day on a Boston rooftop, Lily meets Ryle (Justin Baldoni, who also directs), "an uncommonly handsome neurosurgeon" who "slowly but surely" sweeps her off her feet. But soon, she bumps into her first love, restaurateur Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), who begins to worry that her "drop-dead-gorgeous" partner might be an abuser in the mould of her late father.
We, of course, "know better. Or do we?" There are better films about domestic abuse – this one is at times "shallower than a toddler's paddling pool" – but few are as handsome to look at.
'Almost offensively long'
"It Ends With Us" is likely to be a "summer smash", said Benjamin Lee in The Guardian. It's slick and soapy, and has been cannily marketed to woo Swifties (Lively is one of Taylor Swift's closest friends). But if you set those "cold calculations" aside, it's a "surprisingly warm and moving" drama that tells a story of abuse "that's far less obvious" than you might imagine.
"It Ends With Us" is "at times touching, often ridiculous", and at over two hours, "almost offensively long", said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. But I wouldn't describe it as shallow. Buried under all the "gauzy romanticism" and the "luxuriously coiffed thickets" of Lively's mane is a "tough little movie about women, bad choices, worse men and decisions that doesn't fit into a tidy box".
-
Film reviews: ‘Hamnet,’ ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ and ‘Eternity’Feature Grief inspires Shakespeare’s greatest play, a flamboyant sleuth heads to church and a long-married couple faces a postmortem quandary
-
Poems can force AI to reveal how to make nuclear weaponsUnder The Radar ‘Adversarial poems’ are convincing AI models to go beyond safety limits
-
The military: When is an order illegal?Feature Trump is making the military’s ‘most senior leaders complicit in his unlawful acts’
-
Film reviews: ‘Hamnet,’ ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ and ‘Eternity’
Feature Grief inspires Shakespeare’s greatest play, a flamboyant sleuth heads to church and a long-married couple faces a postmortem quandary
-
We Did OK, Kid: Anthony Hopkins’ candid memoir is a ‘page-turner’The Week Recommends The 87-year-old recounts his journey from ‘hopeless’ student to Oscar-winning actor
-
The Mushroom Tapes: a compelling deep dive into the trial that gripped AustraliaThe Week Recommends Acclaimed authors team up for a ‘sensitive and insightful’ examination of what led a seemingly ordinary woman to poison four people
-
‘Chess’feature Imperial Theatre, New York City
-
‘Notes on Being a Man’ by Scott Galloway and ‘Bread of Angels: A Memoir’ by Patti Smithfeature A self-help guide for lonely young men and a new memoir from the godmother of punk
-
6 homes built in the 1700sFeature Featuring a restored Federal-style estate in Virginia and quaint farm in Connecticut
-
Film reviews: 'Wicked: For Good' and 'Rental Family'Feature Glinda the Good is forced to choose sides and an actor takes work filling holes in strangers' lives
-
Nick Clegg picks his favourite booksThe Week Recommends The former deputy prime minister shares works by J.M. Coetzee, Marcel Theroux and Conrad Russell
