It Ends With Us * * ½

Would you trust an unshaven man that leans this close in the first two minutes?

There was something so slick and glamorous about this I found it hard to take seriously, even though I should - apparently.

Everyone is blessed with good looks and have successful, comfortable lives.  They mostly talk like no one in reality.  Sometimes I wonder if some of the recent films from the US have decided to invent a new style of talking and interacting, which the creators think is more real than real. It's not.

It Ends With Us is adapted from a huge selling novel by Colleen Hoover.  Perhaps the dialogue reflects that? Either way, any book that has sold over four million copies or whatever, is bound to be made into a film.

Blake Lively plays Lily, a woman in her late twenties who's Dad has just died.  She can't think of one good thing to say about him at his funeral.  In flashback we witness her teenage years.  Dad was always a bullying bastard. 

Teenage Lily meets a really nice boy from a similar background.  Fortunately it has had the adverse effect on him. Having seen his Mum knocked around he has committed himself to not be that kind of man. He recurs throughout the story.

Back to Lily in her twenties, post Dad's funeral. She starts a flower shop in Boston and hooks up with a neurosurgeon. (I hope his scalpels are sharper than his razor - see pic above).  He's the pressure cooker, little bit weird, boyfriend and soon to be husband. 

There has been a lot of controversy about this film since its release with some people saying it does not take the subject seriously and that it even romanticises domestic violence. 

For what it is, I don't think it handles it too badly.  We certainly get the message that the man of her dreams has got a problem, even if there is a corny backstory to explain his behaviour, which for this viewer completely undermined his ability to be a credible character.   

In regard to the criticism of the author and the performers who intended to capitalise on the film with flower dresses and colouring-in books, who cares?  I think it's somewhat incongruous to look at this kind of lightweight material for reference on a matter as serious as domestic violence.  Look elsewhere - please!  This is for entertainment purposes only.  

Questioning the moral obligations of this is like criticizing the triviality of every murder mystery, because in real life murder is a real and terrible thing. Yeah, we know.  

And to be fair, the message in It Ends With Us is fairly clear: Stay away from such men.