By Hannah Kremer, Opinions and Editorials Editors

Since its release on Aug. 9, the movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us has been a high-grossing box office movie. However, the film’s reception has been met with some controversy. 

The movie tells the story of flower shop owner Lily Bloom who has been trying to plant her roots in Boston after graduating college. While there, she falls in love with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid, who initially seems like the perfect boyfriend until a more violent side of him begins to present itself in their relationship. As she reconnects with her first love, Atlas, she is forced to decide if she should stay with Ryle or escape her abuser. 

It Ends with Us received backlash for how the book itself was advertised. While the novel is intended to be a story that addresses domestic violence seriously, it was also Colleen Hoover’s supposed goal to prove that abusive cycles can be broken. Some fans criticized Hoover after selling a coloring book inspired by this work, claiming it romanticizes the serious topics of her novel, such as domestic violence. Additionally, the novel was mistaken as a young adult novel when it became popular on TikTok, leaving many worried that young readers would be left with the message that abusive relationships are romantic as opposed to dangerous. 

Across social media platforms, users have commented that Blake Lively has doubled down on these misconceptions about the movie and the book. In a promotion on the film’s official TikTok account, Lively encourages fans to “grab your friends, wear your florals” and come out to see the newly released film. She also has been plugging her hair care line and her sparkling beverage brand, “Betty Buzz,” in the wake of the release, which some critics have deemed inappropriate when juxtaposed with the film’s themes. 

As a result, some fans were startled by the actual content of It Ends with Us. First-year Digital Innovation, Film and Television major Lauren Everling saw the movie in theaters in early August. 

“I ended up enjoying the movie itself, but I feel that the children sitting behind me were a sign that the marketing of the movie was fumbled,” she said. “I can’t imagine, as a kid, watching a movie about domestic violence.” 

In contrast, actor Justin Baldoni, who both directed the movie and played the character Ryle, has been speaking out about domestic abuse and his intentions with handling the subject in his acting. In an interview with the Today show, he explained what he hoped viewers would get out of seeing the movie.

 “I was always thinking about the outcome and the ‘why,’ and the one woman I was making this for who would sit in that theater and maybe not go back to her abusive relationship.” 

Witnessing the differences between Lively and Baldoni’s behavior and comments,  viewers speculate a feud occurred between the two during filming. Amidst the circulation of content, users also noticed that there are no photos of Baldoni posing with his co-stars or Hoover at the movie’s premiere. While a sequel novel, It Starts with Us, has already been published, a sequel film has not been announced.