As a chronic romance book reader, I knew I would have to give It Ends With Us a shot eventually. Typically, I would read the book before watching the film adaptation, especially considering the book came out almost 10 years before the film was released. When I watched the movie for the first time, I did not understand why fans of the book were upset with the movie; but then after finishing the book and rewatching the movie, I saw it from a whole new perspective and finally understood why readers were so upset with the film adapatation of the book. After reading the book, I noticed several significant changes that the movie made, as well as numerous things that were left out of the movie from the book. Fair warning, this article will contain SEVERAL SPOILERS if you have not seen the book and/or have not watched the movie. If you are sensitive to the topics of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND ABUSE it may be best to skip this article as well!
One of the major changes the movie made compared to the book is the age of the characters. In the book Lily is supposed to be in her early 20’s while Atlas and Ryle are supposed to be in their late 20’s. In the movie the characters are all in their middle to late 30’s which makes it hard to translate certain points of the book, such as the concept of lily being fresh out of college and just moved to boston to open her own flower shop as well as the large age gap between Ryle and Lily. In the movie, they make it very apparent that it has been years since she was a college student and that her and Ryle are basically the same age, which is not how it was portrayed in the book.
Another major change between the book and the movie is the significance of Lily’s letter to Ellen Degeneres, as well as the significance of the quote “Just Keep Swimming” from the movie “Finding Nemo.” Throughout most of the book, we are given several “letters” to read that Lily wrote to Ellen Degeneres, using it as a form of therapy and venting, instead of talking to her parents or friends about her thoughts and feelings. She uses Ellen because she is a huge fan of her show and thinks she is a very relatable person. Several times throughout her letters Lily uses different metaphors involving the quote “Just keep swimming” in order to portray how she is feeling to “Ellen.” At several points, Atlas also tells her to “Just keep swimming” and Lily communicates her difficulty with this by saying how she can barely keep her head afloat.
While this difference is very minor it does play a major part in changing a certain part of the overall plotline. In the book Atlas’s restaraunt is called “Bibs” while in the movie the name of his restaraunt is changed to “Roots.” While both of the names have a significance to Atlas’s previous relationship with Lily, this one slight difference caused some other things within the plot line to change as well. In the movie, Atlas says that the restaraunt is called Roots because of a conversation him and an old friend (Lily) had while gardening, and an old oak tree she had in her yard. He moved to boston to plant new roots which is why he chose that name for his restaraunt. This conversation between Atlas and Lily happens in the book as well as the movie so that stayed the same. On the other hand, in the book, Atlas says that he named the restaraunt “Bibs” because everything is “Better In Boston” and how he always used to tell an old friend (Lily) that he would come to Boston as soon as he could. Due to this not being in the movie, there were several other points in the movie that were changed due to this. In the book, the last time that Lily and Atlas see each other as teenagers is on Lilys Birthday where Atlas gives her a magnet that says “Everything is Better In Boston” which she takes from home to home with her; including the apartment she shares with Ryle while they are married. There is a certain scene that takes place in the book and the movie, but the motivation behind what caused that event to happen is very different in the book than in the movie due to Atlas’s restaraunt having a different name. In the book and the movie, the fight starts due to an article that comes out about “The best in boston” where Atlas’s restaraunt gets first place and he answers the question of “why is it named Bibs/Roots?” In the movie he explains the tree story and about the wooden heart he carved for Lily, which is identical to the tattoo on her collarbone. On the other hand, in the book Atlas tells the story about his conversation with Lily and Ryle gets upset in this instance because of her bringing the magnet and other tokens from her and Atlas’s past to the apartment they share together. Both situations end up having the same outcome of Lily ending up in the hospital for a bite mark on her collarbone and Atlas driving her to the hospital.
Another key difference, goes along with the letters Lily used to write to Ellen Degeneres. She wrote these letters in several different journals, which she ended up bringing to the apartment she shared with Ryle. In the book Ryle ends up finding them and reading them, being the root cause of one of their fights.
Compared to the movie, Lily and her Mom have a much better relationship and talk more on a daily basis in the book. This is mainly due to the fact that while in the book her mother moves to Boston to be closer to her after Lily’s father dies, and in the movie she stays in Maine in the house Lily grew up in. In the book, Lilys mother is also a lot younger than in the movie due to the movie changing the ages of the characters making them all older than their chracters were in the book. Due to Lily being closer with her Mother in the book, this also helps us to learn that she knew about Atlas when Lily was a teen, while in the books she does not remember Atlas.
Similarly to Lily’s Mother, in the book we also get a more in depth backstory on Atlas’s family and why he left home in the first place. While the movie delves into it somewhat, the book provides substantially more details about his family, and even has a plotline where he lies to Lily about having an uncle in Boston he is going to live with but in reality he ends up going to Boston alone.
One of the biggest differences has to do with the filmmakers changing the characters ages. In the book Ryle is still finishing his surgical residency and gets offered an internship in England. On the other hand, in the Movie he is already a full fledged nuerosurgeon and working at a hospital full time, not in school or residency. This plays an especially important role in the portion of the book where Lily is at the hospital with Atlas when a nurse tells her they cannot do an Xray on her because she is pregnant. In the movie Lily only sees Ryle a couple of times, like when he is helping her build Emmies crib, but he knows almost immediately that she is pregnant after the incident at the hospital. On the other hand, in the book Ryle does not find out she is pregnant until he returns from his internship in England; but once he does return he is still very present in her life, they just do not live together and they are not having any romantic relations. In the book, he even drives her to the hospital when her water breaks at her apartment. In the movie Ryle does not come with her to the hospital but he is in the delivery room with her while she gives birth.
The final difference I noticied between the book and the movie is the way they both end. While at the end of both, Lily runs into Atlas while walking to work, in the book she has Emmie with her while walking and in the movie she is alone while her mother watches Emmie at the park. In both versions her and Atlas briefly talk and catch up since it has been a while since they have seen each other but in the movie before Lily leaves, her and Atlas finish the conversation with a kiss, while the book is left on a cliffhanger not telling the readers whether they kiss or not.
As a whole, I enjoyed both versions of “It Ends With Us” but I would have to say I would choose the book over the movie in a heartbeat. As an avid reader and cinephile, it is difficult to choose between books and movies because they are so different but in this case its an easy choice for me. While the movie was not as well done as I would have preferred, I would still watch it again. The book on the other hand, I would make no changes to it and I wish I could read it for the first time again because even while re-reading it, it does not hit the same as when I was reading it for the very first time. I am hopeful that if a film adaptation of the sequel “It Starts With Us” is made in the future, they will try to add more content from the book to make it more similar than “It Ends With Us” was to the original book.