Film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's 'It Ends with Us' lacks direction and emotion

The film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's highly acclaimed novel "It Ends with Us" somehow manages to take a heart-wrenching plot about ending the cycle of abuse and sucks all the emotion out of it.

"It Ends with Us" has everything you need for a really good cry: young love torn apart, abusive parents and traumatizing childhoods, new beginnings, romantic reconnections and finding strength amidst tragedy.

The problem lies in the delivery of it all.

Justin Baldoni directs and stars in the film opposite Blake Lively and, despite loving both of them in previous projects and Baldoni already having two somewhat successful films in his director portfolio, I walked away from the theater underwhelmed.

What is 'It Ends With Us' about?

Lily Bloom (Lively) has moved to Boston after the death of her father to start a new life and make her life-long dream finally come true: opening a flower shop.

Yes, you read that correctly. Out of all the professions available, Lily Blossom Bloom wants to be a florist. Let's go ahead and get the other ridiculous names out of the way.

She meets a charming, easily riled-up neurosurgeon named Ryle (Baldoni) while still holding onto her teenage love with the boy who carried the weight of the world on his shoulders, Atlas (Brandon Sklenar).

Lily and Ryle have several chance encounters before their intense connection becomes too much and Lily finally relents to her feelings and Ryle's persistence.

However, the honeymoon phase doesn't last long.

Lily and Ryle's relationship begins to crack when Lily's teenage love Atlas unexpectedly falls back into her life, and Ryle's true colors begin to show.

There's a lot to unpack in this film and one has to wonder if it would've fared better as a limited series. That's usually the case with most book adaptations.

The story begins with Lily having nothing positive to say about her late father during his eulogy, and I did like that we didn't get a giant infodump at the start of this film. Sprinkled throughout are flashbacks to Lily's childhood, which was filled with trauma.

Her father routinely beat her mother. She meets Atlas when he begins squatting in the abandoned house across the street because his mother kicked him out after an argument about her dating an abuser.

There's a lot of abuse happening.

Ryle also comes with a fair amount of baggage that is seemingly the explanation for his angry outbursts, which result in the damage of innocent chairs, random objects and, yes, Lily.

There was so much plot and depth and character development to work with here, yet I felt almost nothing by the end of it. And the most frustrating part? The flashbacks to young Lily and Atlas felt like a different movie.

A movie I actually was invested in and wanted to watch.

Justin Baldoni dropped the ball with 'It Ends With Us'

You have a worldwide best-selling novel with a built-in audience, Blake Lively as the star and a compelling story about strength, perseverance and the importance of breaking dangerous cycles.

Even with all the cards stacked in his favor, Baldoni's lackluster direction is what kills the emotion.

At first the pacing is perfect, then it slows way down and then speeds up, like they realized they were over their runtime and didn't want to go back and fix their mistakes. We spend a lot of time in the setup phase of Lily and Ryle's relationship, as if they needed to drill into our heads that Ryle is supposed to be likable at all.

Even though the first time we see him he's taking his anger out on a patio chair.

Not to mention he's incredibly pushy, despite Lily constantly turning him down and saying she wants to only be friends.

The flashbacks sprinkled throughout Lily's teenage years witnessing her mother's abuse and her budding relationship with Atlas are the highlights. Particularly the way Baldoni framed Atlas and Lily's young romance as two hurting souls finding their way to each other with soft lighting, longing glances and closeups of their hands touching.

I wish that had translated to the rest of the film, because as adults the magic between them was lost and it all felt so flat. That's not a dig at the performances, which are what make it watchable at all.

The problem is that every scene has the same three camera angles - over the shoulder, incredibly wide and uncomfortably close. There isn't anything amping up the storytelling.

The lighting and atmosphere as a whole lacked vibrancy, which is upsetting because Boston is a gorgeous city. Also, if they had never mentioned it, I don't think I ever would have guessed they were in Boston at all.

While Baldoni had a surplus of material and talent to work with, "It Ends with Us" felt flat and uninspiring.

'It Ends With Us' 2 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: Justin Baldoni.

Cast: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Jenny Slate.

Rating: PG-13 for domestic violence, sexual content and some strong language.

How to watch: In theaters Friday, August 9.

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Meredith G. White covers entertainment, art and culture for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. She writes the latest news about video games, television and best things to do in metro Phoenix.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'It Ends with Us' Review: Jason Baldoni drops the ball