Behind The Smiles
February 26, 2025 2025-03-04 12:13Behind The Smiles
All the scoop on ‘It Ends with Us”
The bestselling book by Colleen Hoover ‘It Ends with Us’ was published on August 16, 2016, and went viral on ‘booktok’ five years later. Her readers were astonished to find that almost ten years later, a live-action film was released on August 9th, 2024. Casting Blake Lively as ‘Lily Bloom’ the main character and Justin Baldoni as ‘Ryle Kincaid’ who is also the director of the film.
In the book, Hoover creates an unforgettable story creating a romance and rivalry between Lily and Ryle. Even though many readers love this book, many believe the book is controversial considering the abusive connection between the two characters, which creates a lesson about love and sustainability.
In the film and the book, Lily packs up her things and moves to Boston to chase her lifelong dream of starting her own business. She meets Ryle at a business meeting and falls head over heels. As they fall in love, she sees parts of him that remind her of her toxic parents’ relationship. When Atlas, her first love, makes his way back into her life, she is left with an impossible choice. She battles between staying with a guy who brings her comfort or taking the leap of faith to be with Ryle again.
With Baldoni as the director, many believed that the production was easy since he was able to make his visions for the film alive by being a part of the main cast. But behind the scenes, the crew was not all in agreement about the scenes.
“I love the plot of the movie, but I wish that the drama behind the scenes would stop,” said DBHS sophomore Stephanie Russo.
Outside production, the stars Lively and Baldoni’s pictures were posted all over the internet at their red-carpet premier photoshoot. But behind the smiles, Lively and Baldoni are going after each other in court. Lively accused Baldoni of inappropriate behavior while filming on set. But, Baldoni claims otherwise, he stated that Lively was salty because she didn’t get her way with the direction of the ‘rooftop scene’. The truth is that everyone has a different perspective, and outsiders will never know the full truth. This lawsuit opened a door of drama for fans to feed into.
Today, the lawsuit is still ongoing, and the trial is set for March of 2026. Awaiting the final verdict, Lively and Baldoni are facing publicity from all areas, and it is just a matter of time before the chaos subsides.
