It Ends with Us (film)

It Ends with Us is a 2024 American romantic drama film directed by Justin Baldoni and written by Christy Hall, based on the 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover. The film stars Blake Lively alongside Baldoni, Brandon Sklenar, Jenny Slate, and Hasan Minhaj. The story follows florist Lily Bloom (Lively), whose abusive relationship with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni) is compounded when her ex-boyfriend Atlas Corrigan (Sklenar) re-enters her life.

Principal photography on It Ends with Us took place from mid-2023 to early 2024, with pauses due to the 2023 WGA strike and the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. It Ends with Us premiered at the AMC Lincoln Square in New York City on August 6, 2024, and was released in the United States on August 9 by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a box-office success, grossing $351 million against a $25 million budget.

The production became mired in controversy due to disputes between Lively and Baldoni, with the former drawing criticism for not addressing the film's themes of domestic violence and emotional abuse during its promotional tour, as well as using the tour to promote her hair care range. In December 2024, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios, accusing them of sexual harassment and intimidation. Denying the allegations, Baldoni sued The New York Times for libel over their siding with Lively's account of events, and later sued Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and their publicist Leslie Sloane for civil extortion, defamation, and invasion of privacy.

Plot

Lily Bloom delivers a eulogy at her father Andrew's funeral. From the podium, she announces that she will list five of her favorite things about him. After standing in silence for several seconds, she walks off.

Back home in Boston, she meets neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid. They flirt until he is called away for emergency surgery. While renovating the building she bought to start her flower shop, Lily meets Allysa and hires her, where she learns that she is Ryle's sister.

At Allysa's birthday party, Ryle tells Lily that he is infatuated with her. They kiss, but she declines to sleep with him, saying that he is only interested in casual sex, whereas she wants a relationship. She spends the night at his apartment and accepts his invitation to date him the next morning. Ryle convinces her to introduce him to her mother, Jenny, at a new restaurant called Root. There, Lily discovers that the owner and head chef is her former boyfriend, Atlas Corrigan.

Flashbacks reveal that Andrew had physically abused Jenny, and that Lily had found Atlas living in an empty house next door after he had run away from his mother's abusive boyfriend. They fell in love, and upon finding them in bed together, Andrew severely beat Atlas. Atlas joined the Marines.

One morning, Ryle burns his hand while cooking breakfast for Lily. When she tries to help, he slaps her, but he immediately apologizes, insisting that it was an accident. While Ryle, Lily, Allysa and her husband Marshall are dining at Root, Atlas notices Lily's bruised eye and Ryle's bandaged hand. He confronts Lily, imploring her to leave Ryle. When Ryle finds them together, he assumes the worst and a physical altercation breaks out, culminating in Atlas ejecting Ryle.

Atlas visits Lily's shop, gives her his phone number and tells her to call him if she ever needs to. Lily confides in Ryle that her father abused her mother. While visiting Allysa and Marshall in a hospital after the birth of their daughter, Lily accepts Ryle's proposal of marriage. Soon after, they elope. Ryle later finds Atlas's phone number hidden in Lily's phone case. During an ensuing argument, Ryle pushes Lily down the stairs. He later claims that she fell and that he tried to catch her.

Atlas is interviewed by a local magazine, telling them that he named his restaurant in Lily's honor. In a jealous rage, Ryle tries to rape Lily. She escapes and seeks out Atlas, who takes her to a hospital, where she discovers that she is pregnant. Lily stays with Atlas for a few days, during which time he reveals that he had planned to kill himself on the night she found him, but that she had inspired him to carry on living.

When Lily opens up to Allysa about Ryle's treatment of her, Allysa reveals that, as a child, Ryle had accidentally shot and killed their brother, Emerson, which led to unresolved trauma manifesting as uncontrollable bouts of rage. She insists that Lily not take Ryle back. Lily moves out, but Ryle implores her to return, promising to seek help and stop the abuse.

Lily gives birth to a daughter, whom they name Emerson. She tells Ryle that she wants a divorce, and he initially resists, but eventually agrees when she asks him how he would react if their daughter were to be abused by a partner. Lily hopes that she has broken the cycle of abuse in her family and tells her daughter, 'It ends with us.'

Months later, Lily and Jenny take Emerson to visit Andrew's grave, where Lily leaves a blank eulogy on his headstone. She meets Atlas at the farmers' market. She tells him that she is no longer with Ryle, and they smile at each other.

Cast

• Blake Lively as Lily Bloom
  • Isabela Ferrer as young Lily
• Justin Baldoni as Ryle Kincaid
• Jenny Slate as Allysa
• Brandon Sklenar as Atlas Corrigan
  • Alex Neustaedter as young Atlas
• Hasan Minhaj as Marshall
• Kevin McKidd as Andrew Bloom
• Amy Morton as Jenny Bloom
• Robert Clohessy as the Sheriff
• Robyn Lively as Ms. Byland
• Emily Baldoni as Dr. Julie

Production

In July 2019, Justin Baldoni optioned the novel for a film adaptation, to be produced through his Wayfarer Studios company. In January 2023, Blake Lively was cast in the role of Lily Bloom. Baldoni, who plays Ryle Kincaid, also signed on as director with Christy Hall adapting the script. In April 2023, Brandon Sklenar was cast to play the role of Atlas.

Principal photography began in Hoboken, New Jersey, on May 5, 2023, with shooting taking place along 10th and Bloomfield Streets. The production took over Field Colony, a workspace and art gallery, for six weeks, transforming it into a cafe then Lily Bloom's florist shop. In mid-May 2023, filming moved to Chatham, New Jersey, where scenes were shot at Fair Mount Cemetery. Later that same month, Hasan Minhaj was announced to have joined the cast. The next month, production had to temporarily pause due to the 2023 WGA strike. Just over half of the film was completed when production shut down. The production was still on hold when the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 14, 2023. Filming resumed in the Newport neighborhood of Jersey City, New Jersey, on January 5, 2024. That same month, Isabela Ferrer and Alex Neustaedter joined the cast as the younger versions of Lily and Atlas, respectively.

Music

Rob Simonsen and Duncan Blickenstaff composed the film's score. Madison Gate Records released the soundtrack, coinciding with the film's theatrical release date.

Controversies

Marketing

During her promotional tour for the film, Lively received criticism from social media users who accused her of being "tone-deaf" for displaying a "light-hearted humorous" attitude and not explicitly addressing her character's experience of domestic violence and abuse. Users were also critical of Lively for promoting her new haircare line, as well as her alcoholic drinks brand, during the press tour, and for encouraging movie-goers to wear floral clothes, which some deemed insensitive to the film's messaging surrounding domestic violence. Following the criticism, Lively posted to her Instagram story in support of victims of intimate partner violence and shared a link to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Bridgette Stumpf of The Hollywood Reporter wrote on the issue, "By glossing over its domestic violence content in the film's marketing, and by not providing any content warnings prior to the start of the film, It Ends With Us ultimately fails the survivors it is supposed to advocate for."

Conflict between Lively and Baldoni

Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that an alleged conflict formed between Lively and Baldoni during post-production after the film underwent a week of reshoots and Lively commissioned a second cut of the film from editor Shane Reid. Reid had previously worked on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) starring Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds, and the Lively-directed Taylor Swift music video "I Bet You Think About Me". The edit used in theaters, reportedly the version Lively preferred, was credited to Oona Flaherty and Robb Sullivan.

In addition, the publication confirmed that Reynolds wrote "a large chunk" of the dialogue for a scene set on a roof, allegedly in April 2023 before the WGA strike, which Baldoni was not told of. Speculation about the alleged rift grew on platforms such as TikTok (where the book was massively popular among the "BookTok" subcommunity) in videos that noted Baldoni's absence from joint press events. In August 2024, Baldoni hired public relations crisis manager Melissa Nathan. Sources told Variety that while they would not "articulate any legitimate transgressions from either party" that "the bad blood between the two is very real and the relationship may not be salvageable".