Streaming: scandal film “Only once more” now on Netflix

They play a couple in an abusive relationship in front of the camera. Apart from the film set, they make serious allegations of harassment and defamation. The mutual lawsuits of US actress Blake Lively (37) and her colleague Justin Baldoni (41) have long overshadowed their joint movie “only once”.

Now the novel adaptation of the bestseller of the same name from Colleen Hoover is also made accessible to the audience at home. “Only once” can now be seen in Germany at the streaming provider Netflix.

Romance becomes a nightmare

The focus of the story is Lily Bloom (played by Lively, “Gossip Girl”), who opens a flower shop in Boston after the death of her father and wants to leave her traumatic childhood behind. She quickly meets the charming neurosurgeon Ryle – played by Baldoni (“Jane the Virgin”), who also took over the drama’s direction – and falls in love with him.

Gradually, Lily feels remembers in the initially loving and passionate relationship to the marriage characterized by violence. This exacerbates when her childhood love of Atlas (Brandon Sklenar) suddenly appears again in her life and develops a triangular story.

The topic (domestic) violence runs like a thread through the more than two -hour film. Baldoni works again and again with flashbacks in Lily’s youth and shows, for example, how the father does her mother. It becomes clear how patterns solidify from a traumatic childhood in adult life.

Too little depth for the difficult topic

With global income of around $ 350 million (around 340 million euros), the film at the box office was quite successful, but received mixed reviews. The discussion about the problem of abusive relationships remains quite superficial overall and would have tolerated more subtle facets.

From the beginning, however, public attention was not only due to the topic and implementation of the drama, but also largely on its co-stars. For example, Lively was accused of inappropriately in several media reports that the film has inappropriately advertised his serious topic.

Already at the premiere last summer it also looked like something wrong between Lively and Baldoni. The two did not show together on the red carpet, in interviews they hardly talked about each other.

Co-stars cover each other with complaints

The debate about the film picked up speed when Lively showed her co-star Baldoni in December for sexual harassment. Among other things, he is said to have come into her wardrobe with producer Jamey Heath while breastfeeding her baby and made several sexually harassing comments. In her complaint, she also accuses the two men of wanting to destroy their reputation.

In his part, Baldoni reacted with a lawsuit against LIVELY, her husband Ryan Reynolds and the common press agent for defamation. They would have manipulated media and tore the production and marketing of the film. At the end of December, Baldoni had already sued the “New York Times” for defamation. The newspaper spread LIVELYS accusations unilaterally.

In 2026 the two actors could now meet in court. A possible start of the trial on Lively’s lawsuit for sexual harassment was temporarily set to March 9, 2026.

At a first hearing at the beginning of February, a New York judge warned the lawyers of the two stars not to keep the case in the press. Public statements would have a “significant probability” to influence the jury and thus the procedure, said district judge Lewis J. Liman US media. To prevent this, he can also pre -set the start of the process.