We’ve had #Barbenheimer, now meet ‘Deadpool & Us’. Hot on the heels of Ryan Gosling’s superhero smash, Deadpool & Wolverine, comes the perfect piece of counterprogramming from his real-life partner (and D&W cameo-er), Blake Lively.
Lively is the star and producer of It Ends With Us, the much-anticipated adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s fictionalised account of her abusive childhood and traumatised adulthood. Out this Friday, it’s a couldn’t-be-more-different cinema-going alternative for anyone who doesn’t fancy two hours of sweary superheroes.
At times, It Ends With Us plays like a textbook romance in the Nora Ephron mold, as a young Lily falls for a tragic boy-next-door figure called Atlas (Alex Neustaedter), and the thirtysomething Lily takes a similar path with dishy neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (played by director Justin Baldoni). But the only thing in the story that smells of roses is Lily’s Boston flower shop, where she has Ryle’s quirky sister (Obvious Child’s Jenny Slate) to help.
Surprisingly, for a story so embedded in Boston and New England life, It Ends With Us was filmed on the doorstep of Beantown’s rival Metropolis, New York. Here’s how it came together.
Where does the movie It Ends with Us take place?
It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover grew up in Texas, but her 2016 mega-selling memoir is set in Maine and Boston. In both the book and film, Lily Blossom grows up in the fictional Maine town of Plethora, a picturesque community of white houses and church steeples deep in the sleepy New England countryside. The movie begins in the town, charting Lily and her mum’s suffering at the hands of her violent, volatile dad (Trainspotting’s Kevin McKidd).
From there, the older Lily moves to Boston, settling into a harbourside apartment and opening the fancy flower shop – Maya & Maxim – she’s always dreamed of. A tentative romance with neurosurgeon Ryle sparks, backdropped by city’s bars and one buzzy new restaurant with a surprising connection to Lily’s past.
Where was It Ends with Us shot?
Look away now, Bostonians, because your great city has largely been subbed out for the adaptation. Like Babe Ruth, It Ends With Us swaps Boston for New York – okay, New Jersey – with locations in Hoboken and used instead. (The book’s foray to Las Vegas is also jettisoned.)
Unusually, the production didn’t use sets when it started filming in May 2023. ‘When I see a movie, I can usually tell when something or somewhere has been fabricated,’ says director Justin Baldoni, ‘and it takes me out of the story. For It Ends With Us, there are no sets built on a soundstage and no blue screen anywhere.’
Maya & Maxim was created in a Hoboken arts space called Field Colony, while nearby Bloomfield Street forms the backdrop for Lily and Ryle’s romance.
There’s a New York connection too: Tess Casey of Manhattan’s Aisling Flowers, once the flower consultant on The Devil Wears Prada, helped provide the look (and smell) for Lily’s dream floral boutique.
I wish there were flower shops like it on every street
‘I felt like I had no idea what the shop should look like, even though I described it a little bit in the book,’ remembers author Colleen Hoover of her first visit to the set. ‘Seeing it in person was so unique and so beautiful. I wish there were flower shops like that on every street.’
‘The halls of the production office were filled with the delightful fragrances of a flower store,’ says production designer Russell Barnes, ‘the glorious smells of lilies and mosses, as we tested and previewed arrangements for the store’.
Jersey City provided the location for It Ends With Us’s fateful restaurant. Those scenes were filmed at fine dining establishment South House, while the Van Vorst Farmers’ Market also features in key scenes.
According to NJ.com, other New Jersey locations used included Weehawken, Chatham, Harding, Newark, Parsippany-Troy Hills and Plainfield.
Boston does feature in its own story, of course. Establishing shorts of the city’s waterfront and bridges – Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge and Longfellow Bridge – should satisfy any locals.
How to watch It Ends with Us
The film is in cinemas worldwide from Friday, August 9. Look out for it on streaming later in the year.
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