2024-08-21 12:28:32
Colleen Hoover’s best-selling author is now in theaters. But the joy of the show was overshadowed by serious allegations. Doesn’t “Time’s Up” condone domestic violence? Whoever said that must have seen a different movie.
A movie about roses is a movie about roses is a movie about roses. How are you? The new film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s international bestseller “It’s Over With Us” (German: “Once More”) has now received criticism for referring to this in its marketing, on red carpets, in Instagram posts and in the film itself domestic violence underneath we see a carpet of flowers.
“Grab your friends, pick flowers and watch the movie,” said actress Blake Lively (known from “Gossip Girl”) in a happy clip. “For those involved, this must feel like an insult,” commented, among others “Clock”
But unlike most relationships, that doesn’t mean the happy ending is sealed. Because the worst example that Lily knows from her parents is repeated in her marriage: the perfect man’s hand slips, at first emotionally, later more calculatedly. Is Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni, who also directs) a compassionate man who sometimes can’t control his emotions? Or even a cold-blooded monster? A visually powerful film, a parallel film that improves on this tension, with bright-light and regular dialogues is also thanks to the screenwriter Christy Hall (“Daddio”).
There are now all kinds of accusations: On the one hand, critics who want to see a popular success return to the corner of the film problem are offended by the attempt to imitate the Barbie hype. The same objection could have been raised to “Barbie” itself: a film about social discrimination against women in the form of a pink comedy? Roberto Benigni’s “Life is Beautiful” and most recently Paola Cortellesi’s “Tomorrow is Another Day” also know how to use humor to address topics such as the Holocaust and domestic violence.
To accuse “It Ends With Us” of aestheticizing domestic violence is not only as wrong as accusing “Lolita” of glossing over sexual abuse, but it also raises the question of why, for many films that, by the way, are Intentionally and perhaps unconsciously continue examples of harmful harm, those who deliberately create them are always the focus of criticism.
Then there is the argument that a small part of the film deals with the dark side of the abusive relationship, while the majority suggests a harmonious idyll, which makes the attacks that occur for the youth target group the most prevalent. However, this caution does not doubt the hermeneutic power of the young people who have written Red Flag and the logic of the plot: in the very first meeting, Ryle kicks the chair, gives Lily unsolicited advice, and shows his angry side. Even Lily’s childhood sweetheart Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), who acts as a savior companion to her abusive husband, cannot be spared the signs of cruelty.
Anyone who accuses the film of ploding along too long is overlooking the clues that run seamlessly through the plot from the first second. Even flowers, the stumbling block of social media, cannot simply be flowers in the film, but they are given insightful comments: the mother warns that opening a flower shop is unlikely to be successful and therefore can lead to dependency. The bride does not associate cut flowers with a better world, but with death, the cemetery and destruction – as well as the smell of repentance that wants to restore. “It’s Over With Us”, which even has an ending in the title, makes it clear once and for all that it can’t be done for.
Marie-Luise Goldmann studied philosophy and German literature and received her doctorate from New York University. In the WELT magazine “Kulturkampf to Go” he devoted himself to contemporary debates. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
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