Blue Valentine (2010)

Director: Derek Cianfrance

Story: Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne, Joey Curtis

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams

Music: Grizzly Bear

Time: 112 minutes

Bottom-line: Depressing and realistic; meant for a select few

Derek Cianfrance’s romantic drama, Blue Valentine, is a film I came across when looking at a compilation of "the most realistic romance films". Sure enough, this film takes a strained marriage and uses it to portray a brutally vivid depiction of how it takes a toll on the partners involved.

How do you trust your feelings when they can just disappear like that?

The film uses a nonlinear narrative sequence that keeps changing between the courtship period between Dean (Gosling) and Cindy (Williams) and the current state of their failing marriage. Dean is a high-school dropout who gets a job in a moving firm. Cindy is studying pre-med. On the job, Dean meets Cindy, who is with her grandmother. The two of them start dating soon. In the present day, Dean paints houses for a living and is an alcoholic, and Cindy is a nurse. The couple has a daughter, Frankie, and a family dog. The relationship is clearly strained, with Cindy's boss making advances on her, and Dean's alcoholism getting out of control. Have they reached their breaking points, or will the family remain intact?

 

The younger Dean (Gosling) and Cindy (Williams)

If Blue Valentine has a lasting impact on you, it is thanks to the acting of Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. While Gosling is more famously known for being the charming romantic that all the women in the audience have a crush on, in this film we get to see a drunk, loathsome Gosling (not the drunk type who makes you laugh, like his role in The Nice Guys) who does his role so well it’ll take you a while to get used to the fact that it’s the same person. Michelle Williams earned an Oscar nomination for her role as the wife who has “had enough” of her husband. From portraying the pitiable pre-med student to the wife struggling with marital and household problems, Williams illustrates a lot of versatility in her role. The scene in the hospital where they fight shows the tension at its peak, and the following scene, where both of them break down in the house, summarises how the relationship has come tumbling down.

 

The older (present-day) Dean and Cindy

The nonlinear storyline enhances the contrast in the relationship phases of Dean and Cindy. The craving they once shared has gone dry; the only thing holding them together is their daughter. You see Dean and Cindy merrily singing and dancing and making love and the next moment the timeframe shifts to indicate the stark contrast of the couple's present state. That is what makes the film so powerful – it takes an ordinary couple and shows a very detailed description of a marriage where the “spark” has long ceased to exist. This is something very real – there are a number of passionate couples who go from “Let’s start a family together” to “I've got nothing left for you, nothing, nothing!” in a matter of a few years.

The details of the movie lie not only in the story but also in the visual aspects – the fights, the crying, the sex, everything (which is also why there was an initial controversy when the film was given an NC-17 rating and not R). The main takeaways, however, are the stunning performances by Gosling and Williams. While the tale is certainly saddening, it is still worth one watch.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 88%