Blue Valentine

Greetings again from the darkness. OK, so I was extremely surprised to be the only male in a theater with 30 plus viewers. I had not once previously thought of this as a chick flick. In fact, it is quite a weighty relationship expose' and that explains the lack of present men. What is surprising is that while the film is about the ever-so-slow crumbling of a marriage, there is no blame placed at the feet of any one person, as is so often the case in Hollywood.

You might have already guessed that this is no upbeat, loosie-goosie rom-com. Rather, it is a bleak look at a marriage that starts with good intentions and fades into misery. On the plus, we witness an acting clinic by two of today's absolute best ... Ryan Gosling as Dean and Michelle Williams as Cindy. Dean is quite the oddball romantic as he strums his ukulele and quivers "You Always Hurt the Ones You Love" in a bit of foreshadowing. Cindy, on the other hand, is a bit more ambitious and has dreams of medical school.

The two meet by happenstance in the hallway of a nursing home when Cindy is visiting her grandmother. Immediately, there are sparks and after Cindy's macho boyfriend proves his true rotten self to her, she becomes more enamored with Dean. When an unexpected pregnancy occurs, Dean is pretty quick to stand up for Cindy and they set off to build a life together.

Flash forward 6 years and Dean has changed very little, while Cindy just seems totally beaten down. They both cherish their precious daughter Frankie (played by newcomer Faith Wladyka) but their relationship is nowhere, gone, kaput. Even an attempted one-night getaway to a themed hotel doesn't provide the relief they need. Instead, it's the final straw. When Cindy repeats "I'm done" ... we don't doubt her at all.

Director and co-writer Derek Cianfrance does a tremendous job with the details and creating the personalities of these two people. Every relationship requires work and failure can be predicted when one gives up and the other pretends all is fine. This one probably won't save any marriages, but it is worth seeing just to watch Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams in action.

With the growing number of divorce in America, the "happily ever after" shown in Hollywood films are now far-fetched dreams and no longer a reality. Blue Valentine chooses instead to give its viewers a story of unrestrained truth. This film gives us a raw and painful account of a married couple that was once deep in romance and drama but over time had grown apart. Reality stripped them of the passion they once felt toward one another. The film jumps back and forth between the story of how they met and the current turmoil they are in now. Director Derek Cianfrance does an exceptional job of bringing to the screen the gritty and messiness of a failed marriage. Cianfrance definitely understands the searing pain of a couple that has to call it quits not due to abuse or infidelity but simply because they cannot return to the love they once had. Blue Valentine makes the viewer uncomfortable because it is strikingly identifiable. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams were amazing together; they successfully capture in every scene the multiple layers and the complexity of a relationship. They feed off of one another on screen and their chemistry is authentic, so much so, that it is often times difficult to swallow. The director's choice to have the two actors live together off screen paid off on camera. Blue Valentine is profound, intense and real. It is definitely a "must-see".

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.

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

Blue Valentine is one of the most depressing and well done films I've ever seen.

It is one that I will recommend that everyone see. Not because I want them to be sad or because I think they could learn anything new but because I think everyone should want to see the best of everything and this film is the best of its genre that I have ever seen. The acting is perfect. The metaphors are delicious and the hidden signs are just waiting to be uncovered.

Another great thing about this movie is that it is interesting to get different perspectives from your friends as to what they think happened in the movie and to whose side they are on. It is unlikely that they will have trouble connecting to or relating to the characters in Blue Valentine no matter if they have ever been married or had kids before.

Don't expect this to be a date movie or a nice happy rom-com. It is pretty much the anti-thesis of a date movie.