It Ends with Us

In Justin Baldoni’s film Lily Bloom opens a flower shop in Boston after her father’s funeral and begins a relationship with the neurosurgeon Ryle, which turns violent. Her first love Atlas returns. Baldoni optioned Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel in July 2019 through his Wayfarer Studios. Blake Lively was cast in January 2023; Christy Hall wrote the screenplay. The story is set in Boston but was shot in New Jersey, starting in Hoboken on 5 May 2023, where a workspace and gallery called Field Colony was taken over for 6 weeks and turned into a cafe, then Lily’s shop. A little over half was shot when the 2023 writers strike stopped work. It was still on hold when the actors strike began on 14 July, and restarted on 5 January 2024 in Jersey City. Made for 25 million dollars, it took 50 million on its opening weekend and 351 million in all. Bridgette Stumpf argued in The Hollywood Reporter that glossing over the domestic violence in the campaign, and giving no content warning before the film, failed the people it meant to speak for. A good fit if you want to weigh an adaptation against the posture it took in selling its subject. Not for anyone who wants a warning before scenes of domestic violence; none was given before it started.