"It Ends with Us" Film Review

I don’t know what it is like to experience the story in this book and movie from the lens of someone who hasn’t gone through abuse in their life, but I can tell you my thoughts from the lens of someone who has. After watching “It Ends with Us,” based on the book that unexpectedly had me revisit my past experiences in a way that cut deep but healed deeper, I needed a day to process how to put my thoughts of the movie into words. Artistically, I thought the movie had smooth transitions, the casting was perfect, Justin Baldoni did what he needed to do, I could tell Blake Lively took care of getting to know her character, Lily, the wardrobe is how I imagined it while reading and the movie effectively showed the story without explicitly telling the story. Then as the TikTok trend goes, “if you were to ask me on a deeper level,” I would say that the movie reminded me of how when we go through abuse we forget certain details or we dismiss certain details of the experience so we can cope with what is happening to us at that moment in time. The “what happened to us” can get mixed up when it happens to us consistently by those we trust and the words we receive from them as we try to make sense of what is happening but what is certain is the bruises, the blood, the marks on us that we end up with from those experiences. Watching the movie while having how the book reads in mind allowed me to make that connection to the way we were watching Lily and the way were watching Lily’s interactions with Ryle through her point of view. Prior to reading this book and watching this movie, I have been in a space of healing each day, with my therapist, with the opportunity to participate in the craft of acting, with reading books, listening to podcasts, interviews about the heart and mind, which is what helped me grant the experience of this book and movie to be one where I can receive healing through what is art. So, I don’t know what it is like to experience the story in this book and movie from the lens of someone who hasn’t gone through abuse in their life, but as someone who has, I would say that reading this book 1 week from the release of the movie, not knowing what the story consisted of, then seeing the movie alone is a way to healing that reminded me how powerful we are, how powerful our journey to healing is and how we can make art be powerful as apart of our journey.

Also on https://boxd.it/73YqeB.