Blue Valentine

Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy Heller-Pereira (Michelle Williams) are a married couple. This movie jumps back and forth to show their relationship over time. They have a girl named Frankie. He works menial jobs and she works as a nurse. He's a slacker and she's the tired responsible one. They both come from dysfunctional families. She runs into Bobby Ontario at the liquor store which causes friction between the couple. It turns out that Bobby is her former boyfriend with a big secret between them.

This is a great little indie about love that fades. By the end, it seems that their early flirtations are from another life. Gosling and Williams give subtle but profound performances. Most compelling is that they are about to give two slightly different versions of the same characters. The movie takes it slowly as it unravels this relationship.

Director Derek Cianfrance may wish to stop wasting his talent on TV and make films his full time occupation. Cinema could use him. His 'Blue Valentine' studies the breakdown of a marriage through beautiful and heartbreaking juxtaposed scenes of past joy and optimism with present scenes of misery and depression. Flitting back and forth in the marriage, it asks: Is romantic love the ultimate form of masochism?

Fine young actors Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams play Dean and Cindy, who unite through a dogged courtship. Dean is easy-going, happy-go-lucky and content in his removal and packing company. He is chary of formal education, but has a philosopher's outlook. Cindy is sexually over-active and, although occasionally frolicsome, is more mature than Dean. About five years on, romance becomes repulsion, and their marriage becomes one of inconvenience.

Make no mistake, this is uncomfortable viewing – not the sex, which serves the story quite well – but the paranoia, pettiness and pugnacity in the couple's interaction. They reach their nadir when he practically begs for affection, and she pleads with him to be more ambitious.

No two actors have complemented each other this well for some time. In an age where vapid acting is vogue, Gosling is a novelty. He is very charming, yet he has a mournful countenance, and possesses a James Dean-like vulnerability. He'd be my poster-on-the-wall if I were 13.

I can't get that entrancing scene where Dean serenades Cindy out of my head. Dean's philosophical outpourings may be interpreted by some as drivel, but more sensitive viewers will detect the shattering honesty. A memorable maxim: 'Girls spend their whole life looking for Prince Charming and then marry the guy who's got a good job and is gunna stick around.'

We go to the movies – many of us – to escape real life. Comfortable as voyeurs, we let our favourite stars distract us and we forget our worries. But 'Blue Valentine' shows a truth no cinema can shield us from. It mustn't be missed.

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Surprisingly well done. I was a bit skeptical at first, but as I traveled my way through this story, it made more sense than many other attempts to capture this concept and present it well. Michelle Williams really shines here, it may be her best role yet, at least that I'm aware of.

The key point here is that is an anatomy of a marriage that has dissolved over time, becoming increasingly irrelevant to the wife, and evermore difficult for the husband to comprehend or connect with what's going on with his wife.

I've seen this before, in real life. Sometimes, marriages just come apart over time, even if they started out with the best of intentions and all the chemistry that can be imagined. It just happens . . . people change over time, and often, not in sync with each other. There's no real "bad guy" in the scenario portrayed . . . just the realities of how people drift apart, to the point of no return. Trust me on this one, this does happen.

This film may not be for everyone, but for those who can relate with this type of story, this is probably one of the best attempts yet which delivers a reasonably realistic depiction of what this can be like.

Blue Valentine is not an easy film to watch and it drags at times. That said, it is very powerful and heart-breaking. Two things especially make it so. One is the script, which is full of genuine emotional credibility and never falls into the trap of being too clever. The other is the story, with the time-skipping structure proving interesting and the story itself is so well-observed. Blue Valentine is shot beautifully yet with a lot of grit, and the soundtrack is amazing, for one it is one of 2010's best soundtracks. The film is also sharply directed, and the film instead of straightforwardly tracing the rise and fall of their relationship actually contrasts the young couple's hopeful beginnings with their subsequent grinding domestic discord. Some mayn't like this approach, I found it incredibly interesting and thought it worked wonders, considering how much effort was made into making this approach credible. The performances from Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are simply wonderful, their characters are not the most sympathetic characters in the world, nor I don't think were they intended to be, but the performances themselves and the chemistry I couldn't fault. Overall, a very powerful and moving film. 8/10 Bethany Cox

No matter what else is yet to be released, you will not see two better performances this year than Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams.

It's almost impossible to imagine anyone in anything coming close. In the defensive, aggressive way he turns every line of dialogue around on the speaker as a hidden affront to his insecurities, Gosling reminded me of no less than De Niro in Raging Bull as the older Dean. Playing the younger version, he channels the charm, romanticism, and recklessness of a 1960s Paul Newman.

Williams, who has emerged as the best American actress 30 and under, pulls off a performance that recalls Gena Rowlands' work with Cassavettes. Which is not to say either is an imitation, they aren't "doing method" or aping the authenticity of previous greats. They're 100% the real deal, so good you can only compare them to the best, and they fully embody these characters in every frame. They made me believe, they made me care, they broke my heart.

The story is a familiar one because it's the most common source of drama in life and art but avoids cliché and instead handles the subject with uncommon insight and grace. The lack of context scene-to-scene keeps the audience engaged and on their feet, filling in the intentional holes with their own experience and lending the film a universal relatability. In good times and bad, we can recognize our own triumphs and failures in love. It captures the joyous highs and devastating lows of relationships better than anything I can recall. Gosling singing while Williams tap dances, what she reveals to Gosling on the bridge and how he reacts, the scene in the doctor's office towards the end... they achieve that sense of cinematic transcendence so rare these days. They simply don't craft scenes like this or give actors roles this fully realized in Hollywood anymore.

It's clear this was a labor of love for all involved and it paid off in spades. This is the best American film I've seen this year.