Rating:  

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Mike Vogel, Faith Wladyka, John Doman, Jen Jones, Ben Shenkman, Marshall Johnson, Carey Westbrook, Eileen Rosen.
_________________________
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Rating: R
Running Time: 112 Mins.
Release Date: December 29, 2010
Home Video Date: May 10, 2011
Box Office: $9.7 Million
___________________________

Hunting Lane Films, Silverwood Films, and The Weinstein Company.

Written by: Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne, and Joey Curtis.

Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine” is a visceral and consuming film, which nakedly exposes the realities of marriage and relationships and places them front and center. At times, the film is devastating and real, while at other moments the film fights to keep impartiality to its subjects and straddles a very fine line between objectivity and bias.Presented in a non-linear style, we see all of the components which led to Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy’s (Michelle Williams) courtship, engagement, marriage, and ultimate final days of their marriage. As we meet Dean and Cindy right before everything falls apart, we are ripped back and forth through time, understanding what compelled these two people to hitch their wagons to one another at a time when the last thing either Dean or Cindy were looking for was a committed relationship.

Cindy is a pre-med student, caring for her ailing grandmother, and living with her parents – themselves hardly a model of a successful marriage. As Cindy takes each day as it comes, she is in a relationship of convenience with a boyfriend of sorts, Bobby (Mike Vogel). Devolving into merely a physical relationship, Bobby and Cindy are not careful one afternoon and much to Cindy’s chagrin she learns that she is pregnant. As fate would have it, a man she met previously, Dean, re-enters her life following a chance meeting on a city bus.

When they meet, Dean is working for a moving company. Never finishing high school, he seems to content enough but lacks any true interests or direction in his life. The one thing he instantly recognizes however is an interest in Cindy. Their fateful bus trip, leads to a walking date, and the connection quickly becomes mutual. Gosling wins her over with a goofy but heartfelt ukulele-played version on the 1940’s pop standard, “You Always Hurt The Ones You Love”, and soon the two young and rather lost souls have seemingly found a possible future together. As their relationship evolves, Cindy shares with Dean her pregnancy and together they agree to raise the baby. Quickly they marry to ensure that Cindy’s daughter, Frankie, has a mother and father to help raise her.

We learn all of this in flashback, lined up alongside present-day scenes which feature a very aged looking Dean and an exhausted Cindy, just a mere 6 years into their relationship. Things are at the breaking point. Cindy works long hours as a nurse at a local hospital and Dean is completely satisfied being a father to Frankie, while painting houses when he can get the work. Money is a problem. Cindy’s father does not approve of Dean at all. Tensions bubble and percolate.

In an effort to put a proverbial band-aid on a gaping wound, Dean arranges for Cindy’s parents to watch Frankie for a weekend and he convinces Cindy to get away with him. Much to Cindy’s disappointment, he insists on going to a seedy and sexually-themed hotel for their time away. Staying in “The Future Room”, Dean is optimistic that he and Cindy can reconnect physically and then, in turn, emotionally and everything will return to normal. Cindy is in a much different place, even potentially so far removed from that connection that nothing can truly bring her back.

“Blue Valentine” is not an easy watch and it rather proudly avoids being easy and simple. There’s a lot to admire in Derek Cianfrance’s approach to this story, which interestingly had Williams and Gosling’s names attached for several years prior to Cianfrance securing the financing necessary to bring the project to the screen. Working with collaborators Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis, Cianfrance has also written a searing expose on the roles in a marriage. The unspoken and perhaps rhetorical questions seemingly, how much can a partner expect to give and take from the other, without draining out the love needed to maintain those willing gives and takes.

Gosling and Williams are fascinating and real with their work and each give extraordinary performances. Williams earned a 2010 Best Actress nomination playing Cindy and Gosling should have earned a Best Actor nomination here as well. With Williams and Gosling so committed to these characters and this film, there is an obvious and absolute trust between actor and director in every scene. Recognizing that and knowing that exists does not take away from the film’s devastating and affecting power.

Although the subject matter is limiting by its very design, 112 minutes of a debilitating and crumbling marriage is inarguably a tough sell, “Blue Valentine” never seems labored or overly long. Some have rightfully taken issue with the dreariness of the film; that even in its happier and more romantic moments, everything feels diffused and ugly. I rationalize those views with the theory that Dean and Cindy may have never truly been in love with each other to the degree that most successful marriages and relationships can withstand bumps in the road, conflicts, and inevitable disagreements. One undercurrent permeating through the film is that Cindy is never truly comfortable in her relationships with men, or at least those we bear witness to. Pinging from a verbally abusive father, to a physical relationship with athlete Bobby, she swoons to Dean because he offers her kindness and love. Ignoring that he lacks the drive and fortitude she seeks in a Prince Charming-type, she settles for Dean because he genuinely has affection for her and offers stability for her and her daughter.

Dean simply wants to love and be loved, but whether Cindy sees that as weakness or a troubling laziness, Dean also has no recognition that he has to bring more to the table than that. When he shares with Cindy that he would love to just be a stay-at-home dad and not work, her look and reaction says everything we need to know about where these two are eventually headed.

Ultimately, “Blue Valentine”’s biggest flaw is that eventually Cianfrance cannot help himself and steers the film’s sympathies towards one character over another. I will refrain from sharing which character this happens to be, but clearly the final minutes of the film seem to imply that one character’s motivations are questionable and rather heartless. I simply felt a different way.

Watching “Blue Valentine” veer off that path is a shame, because Gosling, Williams, and Cianfrance deliver a powerful and thought-provoking peelback on not just the conventions of marriage, but those commitments we make that focus on love. “Blue Valentine” keys in on the love of family, children, and spouse, and asks how much we are willing to accept and settle for when the dream of a loving and carefree life is often in contrast with the realities of our everyday existence.

Should I See It?

YES

Featuring some of 2010′s finest acting, Williams and Gosling deliver breathtakingly real and honest work in this powerful and affecting film.

Derek Cianfrance may slip slightly in the film’s waning moments, but this may be a writer and director worth watching out for in the years to come.

Difficult to watch and for those who are dealing with a separation or divorce, or have gone through one, the film may hit too close to home. “Blue Valentine” is a fearless film that hits the nail on the head quite impressively.

NO

The subject matter is going to keep a large number of people away.

The film might be way too difficult to watch for those who have divorce or a relationship separation in their past, present, and future.

In my opinion, the film takes an arguable stance in the conflict between Dean and Cindy. If you do in fact since the same thing I did, depending on where you stand you might feel angry and frustrated and regret the emotional investment you have made in the film.

The film was initially given an unnecessary, but controversial NC-17 for a strong sexual scene between Dean and Cindy. The rating was appealed to an R, but be warned that the film is quite unflinching in all respects.