It Ends With Us (2024)

People may be more interested in the behind-the-scenes drama than the onscreen result now that It Ends With Us is way beyond the marketing and all-smiles-for-the-release phase, but it's a film that I actually saw before the release of the full details of what allegedly happened while it was being made. So I'll try just to judge it on what we get within the film.

It's a strange mix, and ultimately not a great film.

Blake Lively plays Lily Bloom, who is the latest fictional character in a long line of those who prove the idea of nominative determinism when she gathers up the courage and funds to open her own florist shop. She becomes firm friends with Allysa (Jenny Slate), which also leads to her dating Allysa's brother, Ryle (Justin Baldoni). Lily also ends up reconnecting with someone from her past, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), and this causes tension between her and Ryle, which highlights the problem that Ryle has controlling his temper. 

Adapted from the Colleen Hoover book by Christy Hall, and directed by Baldoni, there's something worthwhile, and even admirable, about It Ends With Us. The third act presents a surprisingly impactful and pointed look at the many ways people can excuse, and even justify, red flags/violence/abuse in their loved ones, often until it is far too late to get themselves into a much safer situation. The fact that it's all dressed up in so prettily, just like a standard romantic movie, is both a plus and a minus for it. I understand that it's a way to sell the film, as well as being a way to present the rose-filtered glasses that people can have on while trying to hold on to a relationship that isn't worth their time, but it undoubtedly works against the more serious thematic strand that is the main thrust of the film.

Lively is a really good lead, she can do gritty and strong as well as she can do soft and mushy, and this role needs her to do both. Slate is also a big plus, portraying someone who seems to be a really good friend, but takes time to fully step up when things are taking a turn for the worse. As for Baldoni and Sklenar, they're both here more for their looks than their acting talent, from what I can tell, but the latter certainly has more of an appealing screen presence than the former, and that clearly helps with how the story wants to pan out. You get decent supporting turns from Hasan Minhaj (partner of Slate's character), Kevin McKidd and Amy Morton (parents of a young Lily, who is played well by Isabela Ferrer), and Alex Neustaedter (young Atlas), but anyone moving around onscreen tends to be there in service of the unfolding stories of Lily, Ryle, and Atlas, and the film moves in and out of interactions always ready to get right back alongside one of the leads.

I am not familiar with the source material (and I don't think I'll ever want to dive into any Colleen Hoover books, as upsetting as I'm sure that is for her to hear as she cries into her millions), but I can't help thinking there was a better way to adapt it into a film. It's only the third act that stands out, and that's only thanks to the use of a metaphorical bright marker pen underlining the real message of the movie, and even making it feel very like a love triangle seems to be a disservice to a lot of women who will watch this and recognise some disturbingly familiar moments. 

Considering the relative success, I'm sure we'll see more attempts to adapt Colleen Hoover novels in the near future. You could say that it's unlikely to end with this. Maybe the others will be less problematic. We'll just have to wait and see.

5/10

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Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief (2010)

Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) is a teenager with his share of teenage problems. His mother (Catherine Keener) is living with a douchebag (Joe Pantoliano). He seems to have dyslexia and ADD, and only finds real peace when holding his breath at the bottom of the swimming pool, being timed by his friend, Grover (Brandon T. Jackson). It turns out that Percy is actually a half-blood, the result of a tryst between his mother and his biological father, the god Poseidon (Kevin McKidd). That's why he has dyslexia (his brain is actually designed to read writings in Ancient Greek) and ADD (he's impulsive and good in a fight). And, of course, that's why he likes the water. It's also, unfortunately, why he ends up as the main suspect when Zeus (Sean Bean) has his lightning bolt stolen. The clock starts ticking as Percy learns about himself, learns about many others like him at Camp Half-Blood (including Annabeth, played by Alexandra Daddario), and plans to somehow find, and return, the lightning bolt before the gods start fighting one another. Oh, and he also has to save his mother from Hades.

Based on a popular series of books by Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief is very enjoyable family entertainment that should please fans of the Harry Potter franchise. In fact, that's obviously what everyone was thinking when Chris Columbus was hired as the director. The script from Craig Titley gets all of the information across and paces things perfectly in between some great set-pieces, but there's just something in the execution of the material that stops this from being as great as it should be. It's always entertaining, and there's a lot of fun derived from the updating of the Greek myths, but it suffers greatly, I think, from a weak finale. Especially after the fantastic characters that our plucky group have already encountered before they realise who the real lightning thief is.

Lerman, Jackson and Daddario are all good enough in the main roles, but a lot of the fun here comes from the stars having fun in the supporting roles. Okay, Bean and McKidd are as serious and weighty as they need to be, but Pierce Brosnan is memorable in his supporting turn, Uma Thurman is fantastic as Medusa, and Steve Coogan and Rosario Dawson play well off each other as Hades and Persephone, respectively. Jake Abel seems a bit bland as Luke, a fellow camp resident who provides a lot of help as Percy and his friends prepare for their quest.

All of the choices here, from special effects to music to camerawork, are predictable enough. This is safe family entertainment. It has some grandiose moments, but always works hard to get back to focusing on the teenagers and their teenage ways of working out solutions to their problems (this isn't me being sarcastic, I'm just specifying that the film constantly keeps its target demographic in mind). Unfortunately, despite trying hard, it's probably not cool enough for most teenagers to enjoy. That may explain why the box office performance was pretty disappointing, and it may explain why I like the movie more than many other film fans I know.

Because if there's one thing I know, it's that I have never, ever been cool.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Percy-Jackson-Lightning-Thief-Monsters/dp/B00EE5BWTU/ref=sr_1_5?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1391527616&sr=1-5&keywords=percy+jackson

 

Trainspotting (1996)

I don't think it's overstating the fact to say that Trainspotting was one of the defining films of the 1990s. Slowly but surely, almost everyone involved with the film developed a pretty successful film career (with Ewan McGregor, arguably, going on to be the most successful). Danny Boyle confidently delivered on that film-savvy potential that he'd shown with Shallow Grave. The soundtrack was one of the best of the decade, and the marketing and poster design is still being utilised to this day (even if it is usually used to push lesser Irvine Welsh adaptations, see Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy - or don't, actually).

Trainspotting is a landmark film, and it holds up, easily, as one of the best British movies in modern cinema. I'd happily put it on a list of the best British movies ever. It wouldn't take the number one spot, but it would easily crack the top ten.

The central storyline, although the film is more a series of interweaving strands moving back and forth between the main characters, follows Renton (Ewan McGregor), a heroin addict who starts the movie by vowing to clean up his act. This isn't the first time that he's tried to go clean, and it may not be successful, but he's going to try really hard this time. Unfortunately, normal life is just boring. Especially when his friends include Spud (Ewen Bremner), who's sweet but a bit useless, Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), who comes off heroin at the same time just to show him how easy he can manage it, and the slightly psychotic Begbie (Robert Carlyle), who happily looks down his nose at the addicts while downing copious amounts of alcohol and smoking like a chimney. There's also Tommy (Kevin McKidd), but Tommy doesn't really have many vices or problems, which sometimes makes him the most annoying of them all. Of course, everyone may be a bit different by the end of the movie, affected in various ways by Renton and the decisions that he makes to get his life back on track. Or, at least, back on a track deemed suitable by society.

Having STILL not read the source material, which is a situation I really must rectify (as I am a big fan of almost everything I've read by Welsh), I can't really comment on what was kept and what was lost on the way to the big screen. What I can say is that the screenplay by John Hodge is just top notch. The characters are all fully fleshed out, the humour running throughout often helps to sugar-coat a bitter pill, and the fact that viewers stay on Renton's side, despite what a selfish asshole he is, shows just what a fantastic piece of work it is.

Of course, a lot of Renton's likeability comes from the winning performance from McGregor, who puts in a performance that remains one of his very best. Boyle is a director who often seems to get the best out of his cast, and this has rarely been more obvious than it is here, with everyone else onscreen stepping up to easily hold their own alongside McGregor. Miller, McKidd, Bremner and, especially, Carlyle all create characters that you won't quickly forget. Then there's Peter Mullan as Mother Superior (because of the length of his habit) and Kelly Macdonald, who enjoys such a fantastic cinematic debut that the rest of her career seems disappointing in comparison, despite the fact that she's been working solidly for the past 15+ years.

But let me save the last bit of praise for Boyle, once more. A man who impressed me with his debut feature, blew me away with this film, and has continued to delight and entertain me ever since. He brings everything together so perfectly, and with such apparent ease, that it's often easy to forget how dark a lot of the movie is. It's about a heroin addict, it features horrific violence, a number of moments focusing on fecal matter, there are at least two disturbing death scenes, and one sublimely-filmed OD sequence.

And then Born Slippy starts to play, the end credits roll, and you want to watch it all over again.

10/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trainspotting-Ultimate-Collectors-Edition-Blu-ray/dp/B0014MY1GM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1390495368&sr=8-3&keywords=trainspotting