'I'm a huge fan of It Ends With Us, but the film just didn't do the book justice'

I want to start this review by saying, if you haven't read It Ends With Us, you'll probably love the film.

The acting in this movie is incredible, the storyline is powerful and - despite controversy - I even love the fact they aged up the core cast. But I just didn't fall in love, like I did with the book.

Last summer, I finally gave in and picked up a copy of It Ends With Us after seeing countless people talk about it online. I started reading it in the morning and I had finished it by the evening. I quite literally couldn't put it down.

So as the release date for the movie starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni rolled around, I couldn't contain my excitement to see it on the big screen at my local Showcase Cinema, but while my experience there was fantastic, I couldn't help but be critical throughout.

*Unsurprising, I find if you're a fan of any kind of book, the film never usually lives up to expectations.

There were multiple things to note during the film, like some missing aspects from the books and changing the name of Atlas' restaurant - all of these things are to be expected with film adaptations.

However, the premise of the book is domestic violence and breaking the chain. In my opinion - and it seems, a lot of fans' opinions too - it doesn't quite do that to the same extent. I completely understand films cannot (or should not) share the graphic scenes to the same extent, but it just didn't feel as powerful as it did in the book.

I found myself sobbing when I was reading. Especially when Lily was fighting with her decision to go back to Ryle, to forgive him, but none of that appeared to come across in the book.

When I watched the trailer, I actually had shivers, but the power from Lily in the short snippets were not fully magnified on screen, which is upsetting because the book is so strong and powerful.

It almost felt like the direction of the movie was misconstrued, with the writers unsure which direction to go down. Was it a romance between Lily and Atlas? A difficult but needed insight into the reality of domestic violence? Or about how much power there is behind your decisions?

I think the movie did all three, but there wasn't enough time to do all three to the best of its ability. Core parts about Lily and Atlas' story were missing. If you only saw the film, you wouldn't know that Atlas had tried to find Lily years prior, but when he saw her happy, left because he didn't feel he was good enough for her yet. He wanted to build his business first and come back.

Having said all of this, the last 20 minutes or so of the film reeled me in and made me so emotional. Lily's conversation with Ryle in the hospital, asking what he would do if his daughter came to him and said her partner was hurting her, made me sob.

It felt like the most powerful point of the movie, Lily was adamant to break the cycle. That was one part that was done utterly beautifully, and it rounded off the film for me as an enjoyable one.

Simply put, is the movie as good as the book? No, not at all, but they rarely are. The casting for this film was amazing in my opinion, but the premise could have been put together better.

But, if there's a sequal for It Starts With Us, will I be first in line to see it? Absolutely.