How 'It Ends With Us' the Movie Is Attempting To Fix the Book's Biggest Downfall

Content Warning: This story does contain mentions and fictional descriptions of domestic violence.

Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us has been adored across the world by fans who made the book, and its sequel, a viral topic on social media. But, like many best-sellers, it has also faced its fair share of criticisms from readers who take issue with the book’s portrayal of domestic abuse.

Cloaked in a romance story, some readers felt betrayed by the book’s portrayal of abuse and the challenges women face when it comes to escaping it. The book features no content warning and a synopsis that doesn’t mention abuse, a fact that concerned many when it went viral on social media among young fans.

Told from Lily’s point-of-view, the book does attempt to explore how people in abusive relationships can rationalize and justify abuse. But, in doing so, readers only see Lily’s abuser through from her own loving standpoint, rendering him a complex man who isn’t always blamed for his actions instead of making it clear that this is not someone to admire.

Of course, it was probably Hoover’s intention to show what abuse looks like firsthand but a disheartening message persists throughout the book as Lily attempts to justify giving her abuse partner, Ryle, another chance.

“I empathize with the main character Lily and I appreciate the effort that was made to highlight how trauma distorts and lingers, but I don’t believe this captured the severity or nuance that a topic this heavy deserves in fictionalized work,” crititiqued one reviewer on Goodreads.

“This book is marketed as romance, and the synopsis makes it seem like a lighthearted love triangle instead of a woman’s experience with spousal abuse,” they continued. “It reduces domestic abuse to a lovers quarrel and presents a tactless caricature of the realities of abuse.”

“I have had to have conversation after conversation with people who misinterpreted the book, who still forgive Ryle and who think of It Ends With Us as a romance book,” echoed another passionate reader. “For a while, my challenge question (for friend requests) was ‘What is your favourite (dark) romance book and why?’ And I cannot tell you the number of times people answered with It Ends With Us. Some people write in their reviews that even though Ryle was not Lily’s ultimate partner and just because it ‘did not work out,’ they will still have love for Ryle in their heart and think that he just needs help. And unfortunately, I don’t think these people are to blame.”

With strong claims like these, together with the millions of fans who fell in love with the book, the team behind the movie’s adaptation to the big screen had their work cut out for them.

That’s where Christy Hall, who worked as the screenwriter and producer for the movie, comes in.

According to Hall, adapting the novel into a script required a lot of sensitivity, as well as a strong belief in Hoover’s work (for those who don’t know, the book is inspired by Hoover’s own mother’s experience with spousal violence).

“I believe that Colleen’s intention as an artist was never to romanticize any of this but to shine light on it and to welcome conversation around something that we in society typically relegate to the shadows because we’re afraid to speak on it,” Hall says. “So I think Colleen should nothing but be celebrated for being brave enough as an artist to to tell a story about something that is very prevalent in society. These are the kinds of conversations that art should ignite and I find her to be extremely brave.”

“That was my North Star,” Hall says of Hoover’s experience. “To look at this beautiful thing that she has done and [ask] how can we honor that in the cinematic landscape?”

One of the ways Hall and the movie’s director, producer and star Justin Baldoni chose to do that, for example, is to leave some ambiguity in violent scenes. Instead of showing Ryle’s physical aggression right off the bat, the viewers are taken on a journey where, much like Lily (played by Blake Lively), they wonder about how violent it was, how intentional he was, and so on.

“I will say we had to be really thoughtful about how we how we visualize the violence,” Hall says of the decision. “Because especially violence against women in cinema for decades, at times, has been fetishized, right? So we wanted to be extremely thoughtful about how because when you’re reading a book you’re relying on the audience’s imagination to fill in the gaps and to create whatever reality for themselves.”

“But once you start to really visualize that on screen in a real way it does kind of change things,” she explains. “So for us, there were very early conversations about if Ryle at that point in the story, by minute 35, if we actually saw Ryle hit her, then the story takes off in a different direction.” According to Hall, viewers would instantly see Lily’s relationship as black and white, and not the emotionally gray rollercoaster she experienced living through it.

“I was worried people would start to preemptively judge her and her actions, and not really be on the emotional journey in the same way anymore,” she says.

So, as a solution, the movie was told through Lily’s point of view, one filled with blindspots, doubts and uncertainties.

“Instead of showing the abuse the abuse right off of the bat, it felt important to attempt to guide the audience through the perspective of what it can feel like to be a victim of abuse, because not all of our audience members will know some some,” Hall explains. “It’s important that if Lily’s confused, that we could allow our audience to feel confused. If Lily feels gaslit, the audience can feel a little gaslit. And it’s not until she has the full catharsis and she faces the truth of what she’s always known that the audience is then also gifted that truth.”

As a viewer of the movie myself, that choice was probably the most effective decision production could’ve made to fix the issue in the book. In addition to letting the viewers ride the rollercoaster of emotions with Lily, it allowed for viewers to understand Lily’s confusion, to watch Ryle as he escalates, and to truly understand the gravity of everything once the truth kicks in.

Luckily, many early reviews seem to agree. “The film teases out a darker story involving domestic abuse, but as a director, Baldoni manages to deal with it sensitively while embracing the melodrama of it all,” wrote one Rotten Tomatoes reviewer. “I went into it not expecting to be impressed by any means, but the film has the potential to resonate with its intended audience, and I have to admit that it touched my heart at moments,” wrote another.

Overall, it seems Baldoni, Hall and the entire production team managed to address the important criticism that has always sorrounded Hoover’s novel. Is it still worth for you to see if you absolutely hated the book? Well, that’s for you to decide.

If you or someone you know has been the victim of emotional or physical violence, you can get help. To speak with someone who is trained to help with these situations, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800.799.SAFE (7233) or chat online at www.thehotline.org/