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If I were Justin Baldoni I would redo the film without Blake. She was not a good fit for Lily. When you have a book that centres around domestic violence you really need to have the characters playing them believable and Blake was definitely not believable. She couldn't even promote the film properly. What does that tell you.

It's also so very sad to watch everything that is going on in the media right now, concerning this film and all the players. Not only have they tarnished their own careers but everyone else involved as well. No one wants to hear about a he said she said kind of argument. I get it that there is a lot at stake but to what cost. Like I said, Justin Baldoni... you need to recast this film and put it back out there.

I honestly feel the hate this movie is getting is unwarranted. I personally wouldn't nominate it for any awards, but I enjoyed watching it. I read the book and I felt it was pretty true to the original story. At no point did I roll my eyes due to poor writing - nothing in the writing was distractingly bad. I also think the actors all did a good job. I didn't want to like the actor who played Ryle, but I came around to him. The casting was honestly pretty perfect. I am a Blake Lively fan, and I feel she performed just as well in this as she usually does. I would say I got exactly what I expected from this movie, and nothing more or less.

I normally don't take to reading IMDb reviews and when I do I rarely agree with them, with that being said I wholeheartedly agree with every review that is giving the film the same score as I am if not a tad bit lower. Having grown up in an abusive household, the film did hit pretty close to home. Ryle Kincaid (Jason Baldoni) gave a stellar performance which genuinely encapsulates how unpredictable an abuser can be and how manipulative an abuser can be in a dv (domestic violence) relationship. With that being said that's where the entire score for my review comes from; baldoni's performance and direction.

Blake Lively (Lily Bloom) went ahead and gave us basically nothing. There were moments during her performance I thought she had something, and then she lost it as simple as that. It felt like we as the audience were there more so for her outfits and hair than we were for her performance. Reading up on articles that state people have noticed two different films mixed into one, I couldn't help but agree with that. Baldoni's direction was centered around portraying an accurate picture of dv, and actually showing us the viewers this depiction, whereas Blake's version of the movie (as per sources) comes in through her one dimensional performance, weird placement of music in scenes that didn't require the music and if they did the music was just off and again showing us her outfits and luscious hair.

I sincerely hope that if there is a baldoni cut of this film that it gets the light of day as the film I watched just didn't quite do it for me.

Lot of potential here but as someone who lived through A LOT of domestic violence situations, watching Hollywood make it artsy so mainstream audiences can "handle it" to me really misses the mark of helping people understand what it feels like. I really enjoyed what this film tried to do but do not feel like it translated well to the big screen. Sure they were attempting to show gaslighting and whatnot, but I think you, the audience should have felt more powerful emotional response to what you were witnessing. I think we needed to hear more of the pain vs the silent flashbacks. Perhaps this could of been a part 1 and part 2 where in part 1 we stay in lillys high school years and learn more about her unstable home life and get a chance to bond with the character. Just wanted more than the film gave. At least it's creating an important narrative that isn't option talked about. Its a start...

Another actress should have been casted as Lily. A costume director was required to style Lily. Ryle was great. Lily's mother needed more space in the movie, as well as the story between young Lily and Atlas. Should have inserted more content from the book and presented the characters as the book. Lastly, should have been marketed properly. The story is about domestic violence, and viewers should have been informed as such. Some viewers were surprised during the movie and not in a good way. I want to see the director's version of the movie, since we were shown the producer's version. I hope they release it.