The worldwide phenomenon It Ends with Us written by Colleen Hoover was recently turned into a movie, released in August of 2024. Many people who loved this book as much as I did, did not love the movie quite as much. Here are some of the reasons why.
Age and Appearance of Characters
Both the main characters, Lily and Ryle, were cast as much older actors than depicted in the novel. In the book, Lily Bloom is said to have red hair. Blake Lively, the actress who played Lily Bloom, dyed her hair to appear more like the character, but the color was not exactly what fans had hoped for. As well as the wardrobe choices of Lively were greatly criticized as they did not capture the true essence of who Lily Bloom was supposed to be.
Where did Ellen Go?
In the novel, Lilly Bloom has a sort of obsession with Ellen DeGeneres. She watches her show daily and writes letters to Ellen in her journal. This played a major role in the book and Lily’s life yet was entirely left out of the movie adaptation.
Unclear Acts of Abuse
This reasoning specifically coincides with the scene where Ryle burns his hand on the stove and then proceeds to hit Lily. The way the scene was filmed in the movie, it appears that Ryle hitting Lily was a reflex to being burned by the stove. We later learn that this was not the case, and Ryle hit Lily out of anger. In the book, this scene is much clearer from the start that Ryle actually hit Lily, not due to reflex. This leaves viewers wondering if Ryle is truly abusing Lily or not.
The Following Drama
During the press and marketing of the film, drama begins to arise between the cast and fans. People thought that Blake Lively was using the release of the movie to promote her new hair care brand. Fans took offense to this, as the movie centers around domestic violence, and they believed she should have done more to take a stance on the topic. Justin Baldoni, the actor who played Ryle, used the release of the movie to bring light to domestic abuse topics. Roles reversed shortly after the release of the movie. Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment charges. Baldoni fired back with a lawsuit of his own, suing Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for $400 million. The truth about the situation has yet to come out. But all this legal drama greatly impacted the revenue and sales of the movie.