It Ends With Us is a new movie released on August 9, 2024. The hit movie is about the struggles of domestic violence in an otherwise seemingly perfect relationship and not being able to realize that you are a victim yourself. Lily Bloom, played by Blake Lively, moves to Boston to chase her dream of opening a business. There, she meets a charming neurosurgeon, Ryle Kincaid (played by Justin Baldoni), who soon sparks an intense connection, but as the two fall in love, she sees sides of Ryle that remind her of her parents’ abusive relationship.
Lily Bloom is strong at first glance, but is closed off and puts up emotional walls to those who try to help.
As a director and as a character in the movie, Justin Baldoni wanted to ensure that his character wasn’t romanticized or evoking too much compassion for him because this movie is for the women in these relationships. One aspect of domestic violence is that perpetrators are often well respected or liked in their communities because they are charming and manipulative. This prevents women from recognizing the abuse and isolates them further. The perpetrator often minimizes, denies, or blames the abuse on the victim. A lot of the time women don’t realize that they are the ones being hurt in the relationship.
Justin Baldoni envisioned a movie based on the book by Colleen Hoover to highlight these issues of domestic violence which resonated with women who went through similar problems. However, Lively and Baldoni had very different views on how the movie should go, and the directory ideas for it even more than that reports say they did not get along.
Justin said that he felt side-lined by Lively who was a producer for the movie and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, who tried to push his input as they seemingly battled for creative control. Reports also say Blake felt fat-shamed when he asked his on-set trainer how much Blake weighed before lifting her in a kissing scene. However, a source close to the situation says Baldoni has back problems and told his trainer he wanted to train to protect himself from injury again, but that didn’t go over well.
Yes, Blake Lively is one of the producers, but does that mean she can try and change Justin Baldoni’s creative views on how he wants the movie to pan out or start things that could have been solved with a simple conversation. In an interview, Blake was promoting her hair line which seemed inappropriate. Justin would always make it clear that this movie wasn’t about him nor was it enjoyable to make, and that he hoped that some good would come out of it. Blake is now seen as a self-centered actress and Justin is seen as someone trying to shine a light on a problem women everywhere face. There were many conflicts in the making of this film, but it did very well and was all around a good watch.
