Blu-ray Review: IT ENDS WITH US

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Nov 03 Posted by Kyle Nolan in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) has returned home to Plethora, Maine for her father’s funeral, and is tasked with delivering the eulogy. Her mother (Amy Morton) has asked her to come up with a list of the 5 things she loved the most about her father (Kevin McKidd), but she’s hard-pressed to even come up with one positive thing to say about this man who brought violence into their home.

Years earlier, Lily had escaped to Boston, where she is currently working on opening her first flower shop. Upon her return to the city following the funeral, she has a meet-cute with a stranger on the roof of an apartment building. Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) is a neurosurgeon, who is admittingly not a relationship person, but the two have instant chemistry, and that’s enough for him to possibly change his ways. This makes Lily flash back to her life as a teenager (Isabela Ferrer), when she discovered homeless teenager Atlas (Alex Neustaedter) living in an abandoned house across the street, and the two struck up a friendship that turned into her first (and possibly only) true love.

Meanwhile, in the present, Lily prepares to open her shop, with the help of her bubbly and talkative new assistant-turned-instant-best-friend Allysa (Jenny Slate)—who ironically hates flowers and finds flower shops depressing. Lily’s relationship with Ryle also blossoms, and the two become quite serious. However, just when everything seems to be going great for Lily, she starts to notice a pattern she’s all to familiar with, and the situation only gets worse when someone from her past (Brandon Sklenar) renters the picture. Now she must decide if she’s finally going to break this pattern of violence that has plagued her family, or if she’s just going to end up like her mother.

I had never heard of Colleen Hoover or the hype surrounding her novels before seeing this film, so I went in blind, unaware of the topics that the film was going to tackle. As the movie began, I was instantly won over by the charm and chemistry between Lily and Ryle. The two seem like the perfect couple, and there are so many fun and delightful rom-com moments to their courtship. I found myself really rooting for these these two. Add to this the hilarious new best friend Allysa and her quirky husband Marshall (Hasan Minhaj), and you’ve got all the elements of a perfect rom-com. At the same time, we also have this other beautiful love story in the past, between Young Lily and Young Atlas. Lily is experiencing true love for the first time, and has found a young man who is good and pure, and someone she can actually open up to.

However, I was quite surprised when things take a turn in both storylines, going down a slightly darker and more serious direction. In some ways, I found myself experiencing some of the same confusion that we see present day Lily facing, wondering what is real and what is imagined. While I was initially drawn in my the rom-com and romance, I found the new direction of the movie to also be quite successful as it tackles topics of domestic violence. I appreciated how the filmmakers first make you care about these characters, being charmed by their relationship and chemistry, and then making you question what you thought you knew.

The cast is wonderful, and I found myself rooting for so many of these relationships. It is beautifully acted, and many of these actors delivered not only on the emotional side but also on the humor. Jenny Slate, who usually had me laughing out loud, often stole the scene. These moments of humor also help to offset some of the darker moments, which it doesn’t take lightly.

I know there is more than one book to this series, and I’m not sure if we will ever get a second film, based on some of the behind-the-scenes drama while making this one. However, I thought the movie did a great job of providing a satisfying, uplifting conclusion to this chapter that would still work as a finale if there isn’t a second movie. That said, I did roll my eyes when the title of the movie is delivered as a line near the end of the film—I always find that a bit cheesy, and it reminded of that scene in The Family Guy.

Sony has released It Ends With Us on physical media only on Blu-ray and DVD, but it is also available digitally in 4K. I was sent the Blu-ray release for review, which looks fantastic and sounds great. The picture is clean and clear, with an excellent level of detail. I can’t imagine this looking any better than it already does. The audio track provides clear dialogue throughout but it generally comes from the front channel. I didn’t really notice much use of the surround channel. It never sounded bad, just never fully immersive either.

The Blu-ray release comes with just a single Blu-ray disc, which resides in a standard HD keepcase covered by a cardboard slipcover, along with an insert containing redemption instructions for an HD digital copy redeemable via Movies Anywhere. Oddly, the disc does not include any bonus material (except for some trailers for other Sony releases), but the included digital copy does contain a trio of really short promotional vignettes only viewable via Fandango at Home. It’s disappointing that they didn’t include these and more on the disc itself, or on Movies Anywhere/other digital providers.

What’s Included:

Film: (2:10:27)

1080p / Widescreen 2.39:1
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English Audio Descriptive Service, French 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Spanish 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, Korean, Spanish, Thai

Digital (Limited time offer):

HD Digital Copy, redeemable via Movies Anywhere

Extras:

Note: The disc on contains Previews for other Sony releases. Three short promotional vignettes can be found on Fandango At Home after redeeming the included digital copy.

Previews (7:08)
Trailers for The Marsh King’s Daughter (2:21), A Man Called Otto (2:33) and Daddio (2:14) play back-to-back.

Digital (Fandango at Home only):

Book To Screen* (:59)
Author Colleen Hoover talks about the adaptation.
This Is a Story* (:41)
Star Blake Lively (“Lily Bloom”) talks about the film.
Director’s Easter Eggs* (1:10)
Director Justin Baldoni (“Ryle Kincaid”) points out some of the Easter Eggs in the film to things from the book that didn’t make it into the movie, such as some homages to “Just Keep Swimming”.

Final Thoughts:

My Rating

Film:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Recommended

It Ends With Us works well on many levels, from a delightful rom-com, to a beautiful love story, to an exploration of domestic violence. It had me laughing one moment to feeling emotional the next—the film has an amazing cast who really deliver on both of these aspects. Sony’s Blu-ray release looks amazing and sounds great, but doesn’t include any bonus material (besides a few short vignettes available digitally on Fandango At Home). That said, the disc comes recommended based on the film itself, and is certainly worth picking up if you’re a fan of the film, the cast, or looking for solid a new romance/rom-com.