Colleen Hoover’s wildly popular novel It Ends With Us falls into that category of books I’ve heard a million things about, but have never bothered to read. A property so popular, a screen adaptation was an inevitability. This weekend, director Justin Baldoni’s screen adaptation releases in theaters to reports of massive box office pre-tracking. And while I’m thrilled to see an adult drama about human beings and not superheroes do well financially, I left It Ends With Us with some pretty significant questions that went unanswered. It’s a bit of a bewildering experience, one that would hopefully hit different for you if you’ve read the book.

Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) is fulfilling a lifelong dream of opening her flower shop in Boston. Bored wealthy woman Allysa (Jenny Slate) starts working for her and becomes a fast friend. Lily meet cutes with Ryle Kincaid (these names are all ridiculous) (Baldoni), an impossibly romantic and hunky neurosurgeon and Allysa’s brother, whom she falls fast for. But there are some considerable red flags that are evident early on. As the relationship progresses, he starts to blur the line between passion and aggression, and Ryle starts to become increasingly abusive. Lily’s own father was abusive towards her mother and she had always promised herself she would never let that become her life. Meanwhile, she starts to reconnect with her first love Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), leading Lily to contemplate the decisions that have brought her life to where it is.

It Ends With Us is a better made film than I thought it would be, and yet I have some considerable issues with what’s going on here. It feels like this script is glossing over a lot of the ugliness in this relationship. The moments of domestic violence that we see in this film are framed in a way that’s a bit confusing. When they’re happening, Lily is experiencing them one way, that we see later in a different context. And that’s an interesting choice, to illustrate that someone might feel a different way about this tragic event while they’re in it, and they’re only able to see the truth later on. That whole element of it is quite interesting, but the film isn’t depicting this in a way that feels clear to the viewer, and it’s one of a number of things about this film that must have played better on the page.

Blake Lively is really, really good here. She is constantly adding layers to this character who could register as a lot less with an actor not giving as much as she is. There are a lot of interesting elements about what Lily chooses to accept about this relationship and what she ignores. Justin Baldoni rocks some full-on movie star charm and charisma at certain points, but is terrifying in others. And the chemistry between the two is as strong as it needs to be for this story to work. And Brandon Sklenar, an actor I am less familiar with, makes a strong impression as well. We also have a flashback structure which shows the relationship between teen Lily and Atlas, and the actress playing a younger Lily, Isabela Ferrer, bears such a striking resemblance to Blake Lively, and even sounds so much like her, I was convinced there was some de-aging trickery going on here, but that’s surprisingly not the case.

I also enjoyed Jenny Slate here, who mostly serves as comic relief, but gets a few nice tender moments to play as well. Hasan Minhaj shows up as her husband, who doesn’t have a whole lot to do, but is an actor I always enjoy seeing.

Eric Daman, who designed the costumes here, should never work in this town again. Blake Lively, a goddess who can look amazing in anything, is wearing the weirdest, ugliest clothes throughout this entire movie. She’s wearing a bunch of overalls and oversized outfits that make her look like a mechanic, and it doesn’t make sense. And yet everything Jenny Slate gets to wear is incredibly chic and sophisticated. And for a film about a woman who owns a flower shop, all of the floral arrangements look absolutely hideous, and are not colorful or whimsical or charming. We see so many dark, dead flowers, it feels like this is a ham-fisted metaphor about this central relationship and if it is, it’s too on the nose. We also have a bunch of needle drops that seem to interfere with some emotionally charged scenes and make them feel less powerful.

Despite being fairly well made and handling some of the story’s more difficult material with more nuance than expected, it feels like a lot of what makes It Ends With Us such a culturally significant source material has been lost in this adaptation. It’s a movie that aims to have a strong emotional impact, and this movie really wants the viewer to cry. I heard lots of sniffles around me in the last 30 minutes, but it never made me tear up once. And I’m an easy target for this kind of thing.

It feels like there’s been a dispute over what story the director wanted to tell and what story the studio/producers wanted. And it has been suggested in the marketing campaign for this film, in interviews and press events, that there is some kind of rift happening between Baldoni and Lively, with some suggesting Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds were rewriting scenes and dialogue on set, going against what Baldoni and screenwriter Christy Hall (who recently made the excellent Daddio) intended. And as a result we have something of a frankenmovie that never commits to a single vision and this obscures the message and potential power of this story.

And yet, so much about It Ends With Us almost works. It’s considerably well made and well acted, and there is some sensitivity in the depiction of this difficult subject matter. But something significant is lost, either in the adaptation process, or something that was never there to begin with, and that works against this story, trivializing some serious moments. However, if this film gives even one viewer encouragement and drive to leave an abusive relationship, the entire endeavor will have been worth it. But overall, It Ends With Us is a bit of a frustrating experience, because it comes so close to being something really special, and never quite gets there.