It Ends With Us, the book and worldwide sensation by Colleen Hoover first took the stage during the 2020 pandemic, but came out in 2016. Readers loved it for its heartbreaking, yet beautiful and emotional roller-coaster of a plotline, and the excitement over the book has continued to hold prominence. The book has recently been adapted into a movie starring Blake Lively as Lily Bloom, Justin Baldonni as Ryle Kincaid, and Brandon Sklenar as Atlas Corrigan, who make up the infamous love triangle that is the main focus.
The It Ends With Us movie first debuted on August 9th, 2024, and both people who are familiar with the book and those who are not have been swarming theaters and buzzing about the movie. There have been disputes surrounding several aspects of the creation of the film, but something that people can agree on is that the main plotline of the book remains mostly intact. The important scenes in the book that contribute heavily to Lily Bloom’s story remain in the film, with limited changes that do not affect the overall plot.
The first, and perhaps biggest change from the book to the film has to do with the characters and casting choices. There was much controversy among readers due to this. In It Ends With Us the book, Lily Bloom is 23 years old, and Ryle Kincaid is 29; however, this cannot be said about the characters in the movie, in which Lily and Ryle are in their mid-thirties, significantly aging them up.
Another considerable change to the book was the lack of a role that the Ellen Degeneres show plays in the movie. In the book, Lily is obsessed with Ellen to the point where she and Atlas bond over the show together. In comparison, there is only one scene in the movie where Ellen is mentioned, and it is more or less inconsequential to the overall plot line.
Another facet of the ‘Ellen’ book element is that Lily and Atlas’ love story is told in Lily’s “letters to Ellen.” In the book, these letters unveil Lily and Atlas’ past and are spread periodically throughout the book. They are journal entries of sorts that are inserted into the current storyline when necessary to reveal details of the past romance between Lily and Atlas, something lost within the film adaptation.
In both the book and the movie, Atlas moves away from Lily and goes to military training before opening a restaurant in Boston. A slightly less sizable altercation was the name of Atlas’ restaurant. In the book, he named it “Bib’s,” and in the movie, he named it “Roots.” Both originate in different places and yet they both have an emotional meaning connected to Lily Bloom.
Overall, the same heart-wrenching and tragic plot remains unchanged from the book to the movie. Though there were no drastic changes, the film adaptation ultimately did alter some details to better fit the movie. Both the book and movie paint a beautiful narrative depicting a woman navigating an abusive relationship. At the end, Lily decided to stand up for herself and leave the abusive relationship she was in after her mother had decided to stay with her own abusive significant other-hence the book and film title, It Ends With Us.
