“Grab your friends, wear your florals, and head out to see it”. Those were the exact words that Blake Lively uttered in a video clip on TikTok promoting her latest film, It Ends with Us. If you had not been keeping up with the discourse surrounding the marketing of the movie, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the latest film starring the Gossip Girl star is the must-see romantic comedy event of the year.
After all, Lively has been leveraging the high-profile publicity of It Ends with Us to promote both her new haircare line Blake Brown and her beverage company Betty Buzz. She’s been strategic in her red carpet appearances, reminding the public that her husband’s latest blockbuster, the extraordinarily violent Deadpool & Wolverine, is currently playing in theaters. Being the supportive spouse that she is, she has also paid tribute to Ryan Reynolds (who is not the screenwriter nor the producer of the movie), giving him credit for writing the movie’s “iconic rooftop scene“. Even though Reynolds’ participation in the movie is likely “scabbing”, considering that the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike was taking place during the making of It Ends with Us.
A Missed Opportunity
But no, It Ends with Us is not a romantic comedy. Far from it. Based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Colleen Hoover, It Ends with Us is based on the relationship between Hoover’s mother and father, to which she described it as “the hardest book I’ve ever written”. It explores themes of domestic violence and emotional abuse. That being said, the book is still billed as a “romance novel”.
Since the movie’s premiere in the United States, critics and audiences have singled out the dissonance between the actual movie and Lively’s framing. While it falters in its pacing, tonal dissonance, and characterisation, It Ends with Us handles the important stuff surprisingly well – trauma, recovery, and how the cycle of violence can happen to anyone. But through the lens of the film’s extravagant marketing, It Ends with Us is being marketed as a celebratory girls’ night, an event film à la Barbie. However, asking the audience to wear florals while rounding up the girlfriends to watch a woman get physically abused by her partner seems, at best, an odd thing to focus on considering the heavy themes of the movie.
In spite of the discourse surrounding the movie, the marketing seemed to have worked in its favour. Having grossed $50 million during its opening weekend, It Ends With Us has proven itself to be a box office hit. While the cast should be riding on the high of the film’s success and using it as a platform to advocate for victims of domestic violence, they’ve instead found themselves marred by controversy as reports of behind-the-scenes drama involving creative differences started to dominate the headlines.
A Tale of Two Cuts
Based on information detailed by Us Weekly, there were two camps on the film – team Blake and team Justin, the latter of which refers to the director and lead actor of It Ends with Us, Justin Baldoni. The divide is more apparent after The Hollywood Reporter reported that there was a deep divide among Lively and Baldoni during the post-production of the movie, wherein two different cuts of the movie were made. Lively, however, had a strong control over the film’s direction as she was also a producer on the feature.
Lively’s role as a producer seemed to extend to having the power to make her own version of the movie. According to multiple sources, Lively commissioned a cut of the movie from editor Shane Reid, who was an editor on Deadpool & Wolverine, and cut the Lively-directed music video for Taylor Swift’s “I Bet You Think About Me.” It’s not clear whether this cut was used in the final project. The creative differences led to the negative experience behind the scenes and grew into the two leads not speaking anymore. Reportedly, Baldoni felt “hurt and sidelined” as Lively allegedly made decisions about the script and wardrobe changes, often without consulting him or his team.
The divide seemed to have permeated the marketing of It Ends with Us. For starters, Lively and Baldoni have been promoting the film separately — an uncommon thing for leads to do. And while Lively has talked about the movie’s tragic and inspiring message, in an interview with Deadline she stated that she doesn’t view the focus of It Ends With Us to be about domestic violence. “This is a story that covers domestic violence but isn’t about domestic violence,” she said. Furthermore, Lively was dismissive when asked about how the movie may prompt viewers to reach out to her and talk about the subject matter, relegating her answer as a joke about hypothetically sharing her location or phone number with those viewers instead of, you know, promoting domestic violence services.
What the Movie Is About (According to the Director)
Conversely, one member of the It Ends with Us cast has been vocal about the theme of domestic violence in regards to the movie, Baldoni. In an interview with CBS News, the director said he hoped the movie would change how people perceive domestic violence, especially men. “I want men to go to the theater and in some ways see a version of themselves,” he said.
“You have two very different characters. Both of them in Atlas and Ryle have had past trauma. One handles it very different than the other, and my other hope is the men who have not done the work, who have not done the work to heal, if they see bits of themselves in Ryle, have a chance to step back and say, ‘You know what, I don’t want to blow up my life. I don’t want to hurt the person I love the most.” Baldoni added.
The tone-deaf marketing of It Ends with Us spotlights a clear shift in movie marketing in the age of social media. These days, movies are often secondary to celebrity’s personal brand. Why talk about domestic violence at length when you can advertise your upcoming products? The films become vehicles for personal branding, an avenue for them to tap into to sell more bottles of shampoo and glasses of premium sparkling soda. It’s strange that in an age when people are increasingly vocal about advocating for social change and human rights, the marketing of a movie about domestic violence is uncharacteristically hesitant about delivering its message.
