IIt’s no secret that Colleen Hoover’s novel End with us is loved by the author’s global fan base. The emotionally charged book, which Hoover said was inspired by her mother abandoning her abusive father when she was a girl, was first published in 2016 but went viral during the pandemic in 2021 thanks to BookTok. In total, it was sold 6.9 million copies (print and e-books combined) since its debut. Hoover’s novel revolves around the story of the whimsically named Lily Bloom, a flower girl trying to escape her traumatic past, who embarks on a romance that takes a dark and dangerous turn. As her new relationship begins to disturbingly replicate the cycle of abuse in her life, Lily encounters an old friend from her past whose presence helps her realize what she wants for her future.
Now, Lily’s dramatic story will unfold on the big screen, with a film adaptation of the same name, starring Blake Lively as Lily and directed by Justin Baldoni. Baldoni also co-stars as the film’s villain, Ryle, Lily’s handsome but volatile partner, whose outsized anger issues turn abusive as their turbulent romance turns into marriage and parenthood. In an interview with TodayBaldoni said staying true to Hoover’s story with the film adaptation was a priority for him.
read more: Why We Can’t Stop Reading Colleen Hoover’s Trauma-Filled Novels
“I’ve been fiercely protective of the book, of Lily’s story and her emotional arc, and I don’t want to change that too much,” Baldoni said. “That’s what I promised Colleen: I will protect this book.”
In the film, Lily moved to Boston to start over, to fulfill her dream of opening her own flower shop while trying to escape the dark memories of her turbulent childhood. She has a chance encounter with Ryle (Baldoni), a handsome neurosurgeon, which turns into a passionate relationship when they reconnect after her sister Allysa (Jenny Slate) coincidentally starts working at Lily’s store. Although Lily is very happy with her new relationship, Ryle’s erratic outbursts of anger trigger memories of her father’s violent abuse of her mother, as well as deeply hidden memories of Lily’s first love, a boy named Atlas, whose own troubled family life brought the couple together for a long time. life. The film explores their young love with flashbacks to young Lily (Isabela Ferrer) and Atlas (Alex Neustaedter). The relationship becomes dangerous when Ryle’s temper tantrums turn violent towards Lily, especially when Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), now an adult, re-enters his life after nearly a decade of no contact. After Lily discovers she is pregnant, she is determined to free herself from the trauma of the past to create a better future for herself and her baby.
read more: Breaking all End with us Drama
For the most part, the film stays close to the book, but there are some concrete differences that screenwriter Christy Hall made when adapting the story for the screen. In an interview with AND! NewsHoover recognized the need for these changes.
“With every adaptation, things have to change,” Hoover said. “You’re trying to condense this entire plot into one movie, so there were some changes to improve the flow.”
Here, we’ve rounded up all the major changes that were made to the film adaptation of End with us and how they differ from the book.
There’s a lot less Ellen DeGeneres in the movie
In the novel, Ellen DeGeneres is an important figure throughout Lily’s life. As a young girl, she loves watching DeGeneres’ show so much that she tunes in every day after school and writes letters to the talk show host in her diary. When she starts spending time with Atlas, the two bond as they watch DeGeneres’ show together and have an affinity for the film. Finding Nemo because DeGeneres voices the character Dory. Their connection to DeGeneres follows them into adulthood; Lily continues to keep a diary as if she were writing letters to DeGeneres and later gives her daughter the middle name, Dory.
In the film, DeGeneres is practically absent. Although Lily is seen keeping a diary throughout the film, it is not revealed what form these entries are taking. The only reference made to DeGeneres in the film is in a flashback scene, when young Lily and Atlas are seen briefly watching her show together.
Ryle and Lily are older in the film
One of the changes that fans vocally objected to when the film adaptation was announced was Ryle and Lily’s ages. In the book, Lily is 23 and Ryle is 30; When it was announced that Lively, who is in her 30s, would play Lily, fans were quick to point out the age difference. (Baldoni is 40 years old.)
Hoover defended the aging of the characters for the film adaptation, going so far as to say that Ryle and Lily’s ages in the film are more realistic for their characters’ situation in life.
“As authors, we make mistakes,” she said in an interview with Today. “There are no 28-year-old neurosurgeons, you know? You go to school for 15 years. And then, to make corrections to what I got wrong in the book, we aged the characters a little.”
Hoover also argued that having the characters older was better for dealing with the heavy issues the characters were dealing with.
“Eight years ago, when I wrote the book, new adult it was huge and everyone wanted to read characters in their 20s,” she said AND! News. “And this is such a difficult subject that putting young characters on screen just didn’t feel right to us. So I think aging them was a great move and it worked really well in the film.”
Atlas restaurant changes name
In the book, Atlas tells Lily that his dream is to move to Boston because “everything is better in Boston.” Later, when they meet again by chance, it is at his restaurant, BiB, an acronym that pays homage to the conversation about “best in Boston”. For the film adaptation, however, the restaurant is called Root, in reference to a conversation the two have about the strength of an oak tree and its roots.
Hoover said the decision to change the name of the restaurant for the film was because there wasn’t enough time to ensure that the “finest in Boston” moment would resonate.
“That represented something in the book that became important for Lily to show how much she meant to him,” Hoover said in an interview with AND! News. “So it changed to Root in the movie because we didn’t have a lot of time to include all the things that happened in the book to make that significant moment happen in the movie… changing it to Root went back to a conversation they had as a kid in the movie. [from which] you get the same feeling you had in the book.
Some characters don’t make the jump from book to screen
The impossibility of including every aspect of a romance in a film means that some details will inevitably be cut; to End with us, this meant the exclusion of some secondary characters. In the book, Lily’s friend Devin helps host their first night together and her roommate and eventual employee Lucy are part of her life, but they were not selected for the film. Additionally, although Lily meets Ryle’s mother and father in the book, they are not included in the film.
And even though these changes have been made, fans are still eager to see the film (which, if they’re worried, stays pretty faithful to Hoover’s story). For some, seeing the story unfold in a new medium – and then debating the merits of each – only adds to their enthusiasm. On X (formerly Twitter), the user @estelleokunlola wrote: “I want to go and watch End with us with someone who is as interested in the film as I am. Bonus points if they read the book so we can agree to disagree about how good or bad the adaptation is.”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
