Content Warning: This article contains discussions of domestic abuse and sexual assault.

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's It Ends With Us, based on the 2016 bestseller by Colin Hoover, became a huge sensation at the box office when it hits theaters in August 2024. It is also was a source of serious drama behind the scenes that seemingly got out of hand (and resulted in several lawsuits), but I'll come back to that later. For the uninitiated, what is "It Ends With Us" all about? Is it appropriate for a young audience? (No, it's not; I'll get back to that shortly, too.)

The story centers on Lily Blossom Bloom (Ziva), a particularly aptly named young woman who dreams of opening a flower shop in Boston and meets hot neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni, who also directed the film) one night while she's wandering around on a random rooftop in the main city ​​of Massachusetts. Despite Lily's initial hesitation, she and Ryle hit it off quite well and begin a romantic relationship, only for the whole thing to go sour after Ryle has a cooking accident the night before an extremely important operation. From there, Lily has to decide if she's ready to hang out with Ryle ... or if she wants to reconnect with her childhood sweetheart Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), who now runs a buzzy restaurant in Boston. So why isn't the movie fun for the whole family? A whole host of reasons, actually!

Let's look at some of the many, a lot reasons why It Ends With Us is not a good watch for young viewers. If you're at all familiar with the source material—or anything Colleen Hoover ever wrote—you know that her novels deal with decidedly adult themes, and It Ends With Us certainly fits that mold.

There is basic profanity - not the f-word, but a few "damn", "a**holes" and swords scattered throughout the film - but its portrayal of both sex and domestic violence are the two things that keep the film going. firmly at a PG-13 rating. Ryle and Lily's relationship is, at first, extremely frosty. Ryle basically begs Lily to sleep with him, and though she initially demurs, she ends up showing up to Ryle's sister Alice's (Jenny Slate) birthday party in an incredibly provocative outfit meant to catch Ryle's attention, and their sexual relationship begins more or less. immediately. We also see young Lily, played by newcomer Isabella Ferrer, sleeping with Atlas (Colony star Alex Neustadter) as a teenager, and the scene that follows is particularly poignant... as Lily's abusive father Andrew (Kevin McKidd) finds them they sleep together and beat Atlas so hard that the boy ends up in the hospital.

As an adult, Lily realizes she is part of a cycle of abuse after Ryle loses his temper and hits her for the first time (he takes a hot pan off the stove without a glove and burns his hand; after Ryle laughs impulsively and Ryle slaps her across the face), and the film's dark turn halfway through definitely contributes to its rating. To be honest, the sex scenes in I Ends With Us are pretty tame compared to the depictions of domestic violence.

The first two times Ryle physically abuses Lily in I Ends With Us, the camera plays both on the audience and, by contrast, on Lily herself. After Ryle punches Lily when she laughs at him burning his hand, at first it feels like a complete accident, and later, Ryle has another outburst over Atlas and Lily's previous relationship. When Ryle and Lily (reluctantly) go to Atlas Root's restaurant, Ryle realizes that Atlas and Lily know each other and physically attacks Atlas; later, when Ryle finds a piece of paper with Atlas' phone number tucked into Lily's phone case, the two argue and she heads to the stairs of his apartment building to leave. Although it appears that Lily fell down the stairs on her own—based on Ryle's profuse apologies and the fact that he is quick to tend to her after she is injured—the truth later emerges, and that is that Ryle meant to hurt her both times.

Ryle's worst attack on Lily is, once again, over Atlas. When Ruth is featured in a magazine and the interview notes that the restaurant is in honor of a girl Atlas once loved, clearly meaning Lily, Ryle forces himself on Lily and almost sexually assaults her before she escapes; when she runs straight to Atlas, he takes her to the hospital. There Lily realizes she is pregnant, a fact that pushes her to seriously distance herself from Ryle. Although he pleads for her back, Lily stands firm throughout the pregnancy and, soon after the birth of their daughter, tells Ryle that she wants a divorce. That's where the title comes in: the cycle of abuse ends with Lily and her daughter, Emerson.

Although "It Ends With Us" helped save the box office in 2024the fact is that we probably won't get a sequel, especially when you consider that the two stars are currently embroiled in multiple lawsuits against each other. (In short, Blake Lively filed a civil suit in California against Justin Baldoni, alleging that he sexually harassed her and created a hostile work environment while filming "It Ends With Us," at which point Baldoni sued The New York Times over their coverage. The complaint was later sued Baldoni in federal court, nothing settled.

There is a written sequel to It Ends With Us, though; in 2022, Colin Hoover released It Begins With Us, which split its focus between Lily and Atlas as they try to continue their relationship despite near-constant obstacles. Despite his history of violence, Lily tries to co-parent with Ryle, an endeavor that is already not going well and is further complicated by the presence of Atlas in Lily's life. Meanwhile, Atlas, who has been dealing with his own abusive mother, discovers that his younger brother Josh has run away from home and takes the boy in. it's not out of the realm of possibility that Lively herself could take over as director ... but based on the fact that Baldoni and Lively will probably only appear in the same spot up front in the courtroom, we can probably rule out the existence of a film adaptation of It Begins With Us.

I Ends With Us is rated PG-13 and is now available to stream on Netflix.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources and support at their website.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit it National Rape, Abuse and Incest Network website or contact the RAINN National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).