The most controversial film of 2024 is one of Prime Video's most-watched movies — and it has to be streamed to be believed

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni lean in to kiss
Even Colleen Hoover couldn't write this level of drama. (Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

Normally when I'm looking for new movies to watch on Prime Video, I'm not expecting titles that most people have written off as a dud. The Amazon streamer's current list of top 10 titles is a wildly mixed bag – and there's one you cannot afford to miss for all the wrong reasons.

I'm talking about It Ends With Us, the 2024 Coleen Hoover novel adaptation starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Just like the original book, it follows florist Lily Bloom (Lively) as she builds a new life in Boston, where she falls for charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni).

It Ends With Us was an unhinged experience at the time — and watching it now is even more chaotic

IT ENDS WITH US - Official Trailer (HD) - YouTube IT ENDS WITH US - Official Trailer (HD) - YouTube
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For starters, you've got to take every part of the film's narrative with a pinch of salt. A florist called Lily Bloom? A meet-cute with a neurosurgeon? That's almost exclusively soundtracked by Taylor Swift? Do me a favor.

There's a line between fictional whimsy and implausibility, and It Ends With Us likes to jump across it like there's puddles either side. You're laughing at it rather than with it until the domestic abuse storyline is introduced... and then you're not too sure what to feel.

I remember watching this at a press screening like it was yesterday, only becoming increasingly more baffled with what I had watched as time went on. Without any other reactions to compare it to, the second half of the movie left a sobering taste in my mouth, though there were plenty of flaws in the storytelling.

Then came the press tour leading up to its theatrical release. The creators marketed it as a girl's night out movie, which drew criticism from fans on social media. After that – without straying too much into celebrity news – Lively and Baldoni weren't seen together during the movie's global premieres, with back-and-forth legal battles taking place into 2025.

Culture informs our worldview, and streaming It Ends With Us in hindsight becomes a completely different experience. It's like the ultimate Easter egg sitting right under your nose... and who wouldn't want to watch chaos that reveals something new without fail?


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Jasmine Valentine
Streaming Staff Writer

Jasmine is a Streaming Staff Writer for TechRadar, previously writing for outlets including Radio Times, Yahoo! and Stylist. She specialises in comfort TV shows and movies, ranging from Hallmark's latest tearjerker to Netflix's Virgin River. She's also the person who wrote an obituary for George Cooper Sr. during Young Sheldon Season 7 and still can't watch the funeral episode.

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