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Movie Review

It Ends with Us

December 19, 2024 - Blake Lively gets trapped in a cycle of domestic abuse then manages to break free in this PG-13 film released in the summer of 2024. Justin Baldoni directs and stars. The film also features Brandon Sklenar. Kevin McKidd (Owen Hunt on Grey's Anatomy) has a limited role. The film is based on a novel by Colleen Hoover, who gets credit as one of the movie's writers and executive producers.

Lively plays Lily Blossom Bloom. She grew up in Maine in a home where her dad (McKidd) served as the town mayor while abusing his wife at home. Now that dad has died, Lily moves to Boston to open the flower shop she's always dreamed of. She's up on a rooftop contemplating her future when she's interrupted by a sexy, chair-throwing neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid.

The chair-throwing incident on the roof maybe should have scared Lily more than it did. She and Ryle embark on a serious relationship that starts off well until Lily's high school boyfriend, Atlas, enters the picture. Lily tries to reassure Ryle that he's the one, but Ryle remains blinded by jealousy and anger. Eventually, something happens to force Lily into a choice between staying or leaving.

Overall review: ** Ehhh, it was OK. The film starts out slow but picks up about 20 minutes in. I watched it on Netflix without knowing that it had been released in theaters over the summer. Coincidentally, the day after I watched it, Lively announced plans to sue Baldoni for sexual harassment. In her complaint, she claims Baldoni behaved badly on set and then hired people to basically do a PR hit job on Lively as she made appearances promoting the film. While the film itself tends toward the good side, I'm much more interested in the drama playing out in real life.

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