Isto Acaba Aqui

Fighting their way out of the flowery tearjerking in the film version of Colleen Hoover's mega-bestseller are a movie and a stellar Blake Lively performance that both take measure of domestic violence and the women who get to decide when enough is enough.

It Ends With Us pours most of its nuance into the beginning, middle, and harrowing climax of its central relationship.

It Ends With Us is a strange mixture of swoony romance and literal gut-punch, filled with odd choices, flat dialogue and occasional comic relief in the form of Jenny Slate.

The movie's heavy themes make it a bit weightier than a summer breeze, but "It Ends With Us" is the big screen equivalent of a beach read: It's light on the eyes, easy to digest and simple to walk away from once it's over.

As close as a filmed version of a novel can be to a book, scene by scene, line by line. The fans of the novel who were in the audience at the screening I saw thought this was just fine, and they sighed happily along.

The commitment to the story and characters is unmistakable, and Baldoni elicits performances of tautly focussed, high-relief earnestness...but what remains is a mechanism of thrilling power that's missing a touch of mere humanity.

As a cultural statement, It Ends With Us doesn't quite get there. As a personal exploration of what it feels like to be caught up in a cycle of violence, however, it's a much more powerful big-screen experience.

A bungled adaptation that is at once too close to its source and too far from it.

Is this a soap opera? For a while, that seems to be the case. But be patient because It Ends With Us is something more substantial. Plus, until it gets there, it's a good soap opera, and that counts for something.

Flowers, their short-lived beauty notwithstanding, can often brighten even the bleakest day. In this movie, they're treated like something we don't deserve, a blessing closed up tight, instead of a thing worth living for.

A tearjerker that indulges in its red-meat drama, but then gives it the grace of shading and complexity -- and rare humanity.

Lively is tasked with carrying the full weight of the story in "It Ends With Us" and she's up to the challenge, but this is an uneven and turtle-paced romantic drama that feels like a missed opportunity.

"It Ends With Us" is fitfully diverting, at times touching, often ridiculous and, at 2 hours and 10 minutes, almost offensively long.

To young people who have become inured to the misery of modern life, there's a seductive premise in these novels: Relentless suffering can give way to freedom if women want it badly enough. On-screen, performed by real people, it's not as convincing.

It's not often a motion picture makes me physically ill.

Naturally this all feels dishonest, cloying, and clumsy, as Baldoni's directorial prowess can't match that of a halfway decent HBO series.

I appreciate the fact that this is ultimately a film-and book-about ending the cycle of violence.

I didn't see anything in this film that was of tremendous interest or hadn't been done before and better.

Those looking for a genre-redefining cinematic masterpiece or expecting a line-by-line remake will leave the theater disappointed. But those searching for a good enough drama with a few standout performances will get their money's worth...

The movie wants to be a form of comfort food, assuring us that everything would be all right if only women embraced their traditional roles as nurturers, mothers, and healers, but it all just tastes stale.