Movie Review - Blue Valentine

Blue Valentine (2010)

Starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams

Directed by Derek Cianfrance

I think the ultimate compliment that I can give Blue Valentine is that I wanted to continue my voyeuristic glimpse into the lives of the two rather tortured individuals onscreen long after the credits began to roll.  While the story can essentially be boiled down to something very simplistic -- married couple Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) are experiencing some troubles, unsure if their rocky relationship can continue -- the roles that the two actors inhabit are anything but basic.  There's a depth here that we don't usually see onscreen.  While the reasons for the couple's problems may not be clear, what is evident is a once loving relationship is now deteriorating...and it's devastating to witness.

What ultimately makes Blue Valentine cinematically special (beyond the great performances from Gosling and Williams which I'll get to in a bit) is the ballsiness of director-cowriter Derek Cianfrance to just keep things squarely in the bubble of Dean and Cindy.  No extraneous characters are presented for comedic relief, but instead moments of respite are provided by Cianfrance bouncing back in time six years to when Dean and Cindy first met.  Counteracting the pain they're experiencing in the present, these joyous moments from the past...goshdarnit...I frickin' loved these moments.  There's a scene where, on their first date, Dean plays a corny song on a ukelele while Cindy does a lovely little softshoe dance.  In this moment, I fell in love with Blue Valentine just as Cindy and Dean were falling in love with each other.  And these happier times make the jump back to the present all the more painful and all the more emotionally trying.

Of course, none of this would make any difference in a sharply focused indie love story if it weren't for the actors, and Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are amazing.  There's no doubt that Gosling's Dean genuinely loves Cindy -- it's the inability to express that love that causes things to heading south.  While the reasons for their gradual falling apart are never really explained, it's obvious that Williams is playing Cindy as a woman who, in a most basic sense, needs more from Dean.  When the two head to a seedy hotel in order to try and reconnect again, both Williams and Gosling are pained, raw in both their physicality and emotions, which stands in complete contrast to the sweet innocence portrayed by their characters from six years prior when they find each other in bed together for the first time.  This ability of Williams and Gosling to take the viewer down the path from head-over-heels giddiness to sorrow is a key to the film's success.  Williams, in particular, keeps things bottled up and we can sense that she's always ready to truly express her disappointment in the disintegration of the relationship, but never quite able to let it all out -- it's a difficult role to tackle.  Together, their chemistry is palpable.  From the obviously improvised dialog to their sly sexy smiles to one another, the "past" storyline feels as real as it gets when it comes to movies.

I walked out of the film knowing that I really liked it, but didn't quite place it at the top of my 2010 movie list.  However, as the movie continued to work its magic on my mind as the day progressed, I have grown to appreciate it even more than I thought I did upon initially viewing it.  Despite the somewhat disjointed review above, Blue Valentine is an odd kind of love story that makes me want to find love and yet fear the pain it can inflict at the same time.

The RyMickey Rating:  A

On a side note, Blue Valentine got some buzz for initially earning an NC-17 rating due to a sex scene.  After watching Saving Private Ryan a few days ago, if that movie can earn an R, then there's no reason this film shouldn't have earned it from the outset.  The ridiculousness of the MPAA sometimes.