BY EMILY HARRISON / KALAMALAMA STAFF WRITER
Do you want to know how it ends?
Now if you’ve been on TikTok, Facebook, or even Instagram, I’m sure you’ve seen the trailer for Colleen Hoover’s “It Ends With Us.”
If not, perhaps you’ve even read the book.
If you’ve done neither of these things, you should, so you know what I’m talking about.
A warning, to those who are unaware of the book/movie content. This book describes intense scenes of domestic violence.
A Snip-Snap Summary:
We open with Lily Bloom returning to her family home, in Maine, for her father’s funeral. Her mom begs her to write a kind eulogy, and as Lily goes up to the podium, she has a napkin with her, with nothing but the absent numbers of the list of things she was supposed to appreciate about her father.
Lily drives herself back to Boston, her home city, and finds a building with a nice view to look out at the city from. Thrusted from her thoughts, she sees a man angerly join her on the deck, he’s furious and kicks a chair over. He (Ryle) apologizes when he sees her, and after exchanging pleasantries, they begin a more flirtatious conversation.
Things heat up pretty quickly, but right before lines are crossed, he gets called back into work, and they part ways, seemingly forever.
Lily goes on the next day to begin working on her lifelong dream of owning a flower shop, “Lily Bloom’s.” as she’s cleaning out the building she just bought, a woman comes in and offers her a hand, asking for a job.
The women exchange opinions and views on the meaning of flowers, and Lily agrees to take her, Allysa, on as help.
Together they spend weeks transforming their disaster of a store into a magnificent flower shop.
Right as they’re putting up the finishing touches, Allysa asks her husband and brother to help with hanging a wreath.
As the men come in, Lily realizes Allysa’s brother is the man she met on the roof.
They exchange an awkward and seemingly flirtatious hello. The group goes out together, and by the end of the night Ryle asks Lily for a friendship. She hesitantly agrees, not trusting his sincerity on the meaning of “friendship.”
As their relationship becomes less innocent, Allysa warns Lily that Ryle isn’t the relationship kind of guy. But Ryle surprises both of them as he asks Lily for a steady relationship.
Lily agrees, and a few days later her mom comes into town to see her flower shop and visit her daughter. The three of them go out to a new restaurant with wonderful reviews, Root, and as the waiter comes up and orders them drinks, Lily realizes she knows the waiter from her past.
Atlas, their waiter, was her first romantic partner, and her childhood best friend. They spent many days together and shared in each other’s pain towards their family’s domestic abuse.
We later find out that Lily’s dad almost beat Atlas to death, and the two haven’t seen each other since. But during their friendship Lily taught him the importance of roots and how that helps the oak tree stand tall. Atlas carves her a heart out of the oak tree, which lily later copies the carving as a tattoo on her collar bone.
Lily and Atlas secretly exchange greetings, and tell each other about life, such as his restaurant opening and her flower shop opening, as well as her relationship.
Ryle and Lily’s relationship becomes more romantic and deeper but one day Ryle burns his hand on a tray he is taking out of the oven, and, supposedly, accidently hits Lily in the process of reacting to the burn.
With her eye blackened, she goes back to roots to join Allysa and her husband on a double date. Atlas sees her eye and follows Lily to the bathroom to investigate the situation. As they exit the bathroom Ryle catches the two leaving together and Atlas and Ryle break into a fight over Lily safety, and Lily’s affection.
Ryle makes Lily promise not to see Atlas anymore, and she agrees. Their relationship seems steady after this. One day Atlas comes to the flower shop and puts his phone number in Lily’s phone case. He tells her that if she needs him, to call.
Months go by and Allysa has become a mother, and during this day Ryle proposes to Lily. They get married and life seems good until one day Ryle accidently drops Lily’s phone, revealing the number under the case.
When Lily tries to explain that the number doesn’t mean anything, Ryle hits her. The two get into a fight of anger and desperation that results in Lily “falling” down some stairs.
Weeks go by and everything seems better until “Lily Bloom’s” is issued in a magazine as part of an article of the best ten attractions in Boston.
Rated at number one, is Roots, Atlas’s restaurant.
In his entry, Atlas explains the meaning behind the name, and accidently, the meaning behind Lily’s tattoo.
Lost in rage and lust, Ryle attempts to force himself on lily, while attempting to bite through her tattoo.
She ends up escaping and goes to Atlas’s restaurant.
From there he takes her to the hospital, where Lily finds out she pregnant.
She spends a few days at Atlas’s before getting her own apartment.
Alysa apologizes for her brothers’ actions but tells Lily she will never forgive her if she takes Ryle back. With this their friendship grows stronger.
Lily does give birth to a baby girl and tells Ryle she wants a divorce.
She reminds him of the times he hit her, threw her down the stairs, and forced himself upon her. And asks him what he would tell his daughter if she told him her husband did all of that to her.
In this realization he leaves Lily and their baby girl (Emmy) to be on their own, knowing he ruined the chance of a family.
She holds her baby near and tells her that “the cycle (of abuse) ends with us.”
At the end of the film Emmy has aged about two years, and Lily meets Atlas again, and the two form a relationship, free from abuse.
My Personal Review:
I’ll come right out and be honest, I don’t love Colleen Hoover as an author. She has a great story, and many deep principals, but she Is not my taste in writing style.
But I’m not here to criticize her.
The movie itself has wonderful cuts, wonderful flashbacks, good music choices and excellent imagery. The director, Justin Baldoni, did a wonderful job catching the emotions in the impressions he shot. I did read the book long ago, and to be honest it didn’t stick with me, but some of the scenes did jog my memory, but there were still heart aches that were brought to life that I didn’t recall from the book.
I’m going to stop my comparison the movie to the book and focus on the film itself as a single piece. I highly recommend for anyone to see this film. This is definitely more of an adult film, do not bring your children to see this. It has sexual content and abuse, something a child does not need to see or be exposed to, let alone in the theater.
This movie did an excellent job portraying the kind of abusive relationship that repeats itself through time. It’s hard to leave a relationship when you truly believe in your heart that they love you. But both fortunately, and unfortunately, many abusers will cross the line, and break the trance, and cause their partner to finally stand up and leave. Unfortunately, not all abusers cross this line, they simply play with it. Or, more tragically, their partner loves them so much, and is too afraid of life without them, such as Jenny (lily’s mother) they stay with their abuser, despite the pain.
This movie did a really good job at representing that not all abusive relationships end in fights and flames. They simply can just end.
I thought it was a beautiful moment when Lily held her baby girl and assured Emmy, and herself, that that abusive cycle ends. Its ends with them.
A promise Jenny never made.
I thought Lily taking some time to heal herself, some time to be with her daughter, before finding Atlas again was a great representation of what should happen. Healing yourself is more important than finding someone to heal you. People can help you find ways to heal, or even find ways to let things go. But only you can truly find that way to cleanse yourself of the ailments that have befallen you.
I did think (I can still appreciate it is a movie with limited screen time) that Lily and Ryle’s relationship did get quite passionate pretty quickly, the timeline was not greatly clear.
I thought Lily and Allysa’s friendship was wonderful. I thought it blossomed (pun intended) wonderfully, and it grew to be a deeper connection than Lily being married to Allysa’s brother.
I thought the story line and the events were accurate, if not poignant. The backgrounds, music, cuts, and lighting elements were wonderful. I don’t think they could have done a better job with that.
Overall, I would rate this move an 8.5/10.
Quickly, About the Author:
I figured I’d include a quick snippet about the author, so if you are interested in reading the book, or interested in more of her books you have a better insight.
Collen Hoover is an American author. She focuses on romance and YA fiction books. She started off as a self-published author before being picked up by a couple different. publishers. Her stories are quite sought after by young adults as well as millennials.
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In her thirteen years of writing, she has published twenty-six books, and is still writing.
She began her career on a borrow laptop and has risen to become a common best seller.
