Secrets and Lies
This rom-com doesn’t begin with a “meet cute.” Instead the heroine watches at close range as her future beau blows open a door to a rooftop parking lot in a fit of rage and kicks a chair. We could have saved a lot of time diagnosing Ryle as a guy in dire need of anger management and thus send Lily off into the night safe in the knowledge that Ryle isn’t worth the trouble.
But “Ends,” based on a bestseller, isn’t interested in safe choices. Lily is intrigued by this dark-haired stranger. And once he turns on the charm, she’s putty in his neurosurgeon hands.
“It Ends With Us” unfolds as a cautionary tale. Or maybe it’s a slick dramatization of the old Chinese proverb “Be Careful What You Wish For.”
Lily Bloom (shame on you, parents) is a dreamer and a doer. In a flashback, she’s sitting at her bedroom window and spots a young man crawling from the window of a vacant building across the street. Of course, this stranger isn’t what you’d call a typical vagabond.
Atlas is good-looking in a Hallmark movie kind of way. And it turns out he rides the bus to the same high school where Lily is a student. Apparently, Atlas, due to his poor hygiene and dirty clothes, is an outcast at school.
Lily soon discovers Atlas was kicked out of his own house by his wretched mother. So, Lily packs up some clean clothes and raids the kitchen to provide the boy with some creature comforts. She even lets him shower at her house while her parents are at work.
This is a bond that at first seems fleeting but will later complicate Lily’s life in ways the altruistic highschooler can’t begin to imagine.
Fast-forward to Adult Lily, who has blossomed (sorry) into a career-minded flower shop owner. Her relationship with Ryle is also showing promise. He pursues. She demurs, until the two of them visit Ryle’s sister at the hospital where she has just given birth to a daughter.
Soon, Ryle is down on one knee and Lily melts and says yes.
Oh, girl, be careful what you wish for.
One night Ryle takes Lily to a new restaurant that has generated a lot of buzz among Boston’s elite. And the man taking their order is: can you guess? It’s Atlas, whose charms aren’t just culinary.
Out of earshot of Ryle, they have a chat on the order of, “I can’t believe we’re both in Boston.”
It’s clear that their ardor for each other hasn’t cooled. Meanwhile, Ryle and Lily’s home life has taken a dark turn. There are episodes where “accidents” not so subtly cover for domestic abuse.
The book on which the movie is based exposes Ryle for what he really is. The movie, however, directed by actor Justin Baldoni, who plays Ryle, softens the edges of the story.
At first, Lily seems strangely oblivious to what’s happening to her. And then her escape from this domestic tangle is made all too easy.
If you’re a fan of the book, you might be disappointed with the way director Baldoni has chosen to alter certain critical aspects of the narrative.
While that’s up for debate, there’s no question Blake Lively is a winning presence and elevates the material above mere soap opera.