“It Ends with Us” Showcases Blake Lively’s Wry Grandeur

In recent years, popular movies have staked their claims to attention mainly with fantasy and spectacle. As a result, Hollywood has been neglecting one of its most important classic genres: romantic melodrama. It’s an odd genre because it’s got irony built into it, with the grand emotional pitch of tragedy ever at risk of being undercut or even ridiculed by workaday settings. The canonical melodramas—such as “Only Yesterday,” “A Life of Her Own,” and “All That Heaven Allows”—don’t shy away from these contradictions but press them to the breaking point, and that’s also true of a new, worthy entry into the genre, “It Ends with Us.” It may not rival the great exemplars in directorial invention or thematic complexity, but it does follow in their footsteps—sometimes timidly, sometimes with an admirable audacity.