GamesRadar+ Verdict

A serious subject is sensitively handled in a drama that’s otherwise just tear-jerking soap opera

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A story involving domestic violence and coercive control comes with an incongruously glossy sheen in this Boston-set adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, a vehicle for The Shallows’ Blake Lively that sees that pic’s shark recast as a handsome yet volatile neurosurgeon (Justin Baldoni, also director here).

While Lively’s Lily is deeply taken by Doctor Ryle’s bedside manner, warning signs blare like klaxons. The first time they meet, for example, he is furiously kicking a chair. Fortunately for her she has a white knight in Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), the homeless kid she took a shine to back when they were high schoolers (portrayed by Isabela Ferrer and Alex Neustaedter) in Maine.

With its glam couture and sumptuously curated interiors, and a high-end mentality that extends from Lily’s fancy flower shop to Atlas’s upscale restaurant, Baldoni’s lush melodrama has a surface superficiality that is all too mockable. When it comes to the assaults its heroine endures though, it is admirably astute, not least in its depiction of partner abuse as a pattern of behavior passed down through generations.

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Hoover’s novel drew on her personal experience of watching her father ill-treat her mother, so it’s hardly surprising this element carries a ring of emotional truth. For the most part, however, screenwriter Christy Hall is rather too content to wallow in consumerist fantasy – a foible most apparent in the scene where Lily strides into an equestrian-themed birthday party thrown by her boyfriend’s scatty sister (Jenny Slate) in a pair of sequin-studded heeled boots.

It Ends With Us is released in UK cinemas and US theaters on August 9.

For more on what is coming out this year, check out our guide to the upcoming movies you need to know about.

Neil Smith is a freelance film critic and writer who contributes regularly to Heat, SFX and Screen International. He's a long-time member of the London Film Critics’ Circle and was a contributing editor at Total Film for many years.