It Ends With Us

When I find myself scheduled to review films based on books I will usually try to track down a copy of the source. Adaptation is a difficult process. What works in one medium may not work in another. There are films I consider triumphs, like Dredd and True History Of The Kelly Gang. There are films that have ambition but don't quite work, like Dune, and Dune. There are those that are even less successful, but I shall spare blushes.

I'll often make use of my local library for this. I would have here, but my local council's arms-length cultural body only has 22 copies. I say 'only'; they've just two copies of True History Of The Kelly Gang and it also doesn't have 16 folk already in the reservation queue. I'll grant that Dune has at least one more copy, but it was published 60 years ago and It Ends With Us just six. Its success as a work would undoubtedly attract Hollywood's attention, an industry that is as averse to risk as it is incapable of judging it. On the basis of the film this is a bandwagon worth catching. Despite a difficult subject matter, It Ends With Us is a powerful piece that features several strong performances, most notably its co-leads.

Blake Lively and Isabela Ferrer both play Lily Bloom at different points in her life. This is only Ferrer's third credited role, and it's a big one. The embargo I was asked to sign included a request that reviews not feature spoilers, but I don't think talking about how the story moves forward and flashes backwards constitutes one. It's a distinction that can be made easy in print, but here it is stronger because she and Lively are so close in their portrayals. Lily gets into some difficult situations, and makes some difficult choices.

I don't think it necessary to say much more than that. There are inevitably changes from the book, and with eight million copies sold and about two dozen folk more successful than me in getting it from the library they'll doubtless notice them. Treating it as a thing itself I found it a convincing work that may only be undercut by a critical eye.

You may often see references to the Bechdel Test, a theoretical framework that takes its name from a joke in comic Dykes To Watch Out For whose origin is attributed to Alison's friend Liz Wallace. 'The Rule' requires a film to have two women having a conversation about something other than a man. I believe It Ends With Us passes, but it's close. It's based on the novel by Colleen Hoover, and she co-writes with Christy Hall. Like many involved, Hall may be better known for TV work, though her 2023 Sean Penn/Dakota Johnson vehicle Daddio is yet to have a UK release.

Among those TV veterans is director Justin Baldoni, who also appears in front of the camera as Dr Kincaid. The air of unreality around a handsome neurosurgeon and the quality of the housing and haberdashery does tend somewhat to the soap opera. While Lively might have attracted attention by wearing multiple outfits for press events in a single day, that kind of clothes-horsing has a purpose. Media appetites are such that if different events look too similar they won't get coverage. In the film it's absolutely the case that similar events look different, but the quality of the costuming means things feel a bit rich. Without going into detail, everyone has what feel like Hallmark Movie jobs, though some of the discussions are far from greeting card territory. I did note good writing, and good performances, but there were issues with consistency.

Barry Peterson's work as a cinematographer has often been in comedy and fantasy, his most recent works being the third Big Fat Greek Wedding and the (Hugo award winning!) Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves. There were a few moments where camera movement became pronounced enough that the line between verité and vertigo was blurred. The unease that came with it was at times earned and well spent, but at others felt false and forced. Less disruptive the score by Duncan Blickenstaff and Rob Simonsen which was less a comforting blanket than neutral wallpaper.

It is perhaps that balance involved in being unchallenging around a challenging subject that is most difficult for It Ends With Us, and I'm not sure it succeeds. I appreciated the reference in the credits to nomore.org, but as with Dead In A Week (Or Your Money Back) I had real concerns about the extent to which characters are left to navigate difficult circumstances without recourse to sources of aid. How and why that's not entirely true is where the film has some of its strongest and some of its most jarring moments.

There are moments of dissonance that work because they feel intentional, and moments that seem a consequence of a lost thread, perhaps within that musical metaphor a loose or broken string. There are places where It Ends With Us definitely strikes a chord. For all of those who have until now seen it only on the page, there is something in its performance, in the ensemble. I wondered perhaps if part of the issue is the way I watched what I perceived as a male gaze on a story that centred women and lived experiences bound up in the power imbalances of patriarchy. Elements of the ending that I shall not discuss any more than this felt almost like they were trying to settle the matter by investment and not ideology. A subtle distinction perhaps but one I was minded of with dreams made concrete and trauma differently concealed.

That it doesn't quite work in my view does not mean it is not worth watching. Far from it. I think my criticality is born of the quality it displays. If it were a thing ragged and improvised I would care more about the shape than the stitching, but where there's been so much attention it becomes the smallest things that matter.