Reel Review : Blue Valentine

PLOT: The beginning and the end of a relationship between two highly complex young adults (Ryan Gosling & Michelle Williams).





You always hurt the ones you love. So go the lyrics to the song that Dean (Ryan Gosling) serenades Cindy (Michelle Williams) with on their very first date in Derek Cianfrance's emotionally devastating romantic drama Blue Valentine. Several years later, the two are married and have a young daughter together, but it is painfully clear that their relationship is coming to its end. Using the same narrative device as last year's indie romantic darling (500) Days of Summer, Blue Valentine cuts back and forth between the beginning and the end it's protagonists ill-fated union, showing us how it all started and where exactly it might have gone wrong. What results is a bleak and heart wrenching yet utterly captivating story featuring two of the most impressive performances of the year.

By the time Blue Valentine begins, the relationship between Dean and Cindy is on the verge of collapse; they argue over the pettiest of problems, blame each other for things beyond their control, and despite the love they both clearly feel for their daughter Frankie, any feelings they might have had for each other have long since evaporated. In one desperate, last-ditched effort to try and reconcile their relationship, Dean books the two of them a night in an erotically themed motel where they attempt to rekindle their passion. At the same time, flashbacks introduced us to younger, more optimistic versions of the couple, as under less than ideal circumstances, they meet and begin to fall in love.

The performances from Williams and Gosling are astounding. Raw, believable and filled with anguish, both actors deserve Oscar nominations for their work in a film that has them bearing the entirety of their souls. Cianfrance's screenplay is spectacular, although one suspects that the films dialogue was largely improvised. These characters do not feel scripted; from the flustered, inarticulate ways that they argue to the frank and sometimes painfully un-erotic fashion in which they make love, Cindy and Dean both seem brutally, unflatteringly like real people, and the inevitable tragedy that befalls them is all the more upsetting because of this. Perhaps most impressive is that neither Dean nor Cindy begin the film as particularly likable, but the phenomenal work from the two leads ensures that by the stories end, we want nothing more than for things to work out all right.

Cianfrance employs a minimalistic directorial style in order to match the simple, real world story that he is trying to tell. Using predominately hand-held cameras, the writer-director highlights the unremarkable nature of his characters; their vulnerabilities, hopes and frustrations. The way the film cuts from one timeline to another is extremely subtle, so much so that at first you may not realize it at all. Flashbacks are not accompanied by sound effects or flashy cuts, but by uncomplicated edits and the skillful juxtaposition of images, a technique that, especially towards the end of the film, results in some incredibly moving moments. Blue Valentine uses flashbacks as neither a gimmick nor a storytelling trick, but as a way to lend additional feeling to the most everyday of objects, and an additional tragedy to a relationship that at one time seemed capable of overcoming anything.

It does not seem like a spoiler to reveal that the ending of Blue Valentine is not a happy one. To anyone who watches more than five minutes of this film, it is all too apparent that the conclusion is inevitable, and that all efforts to change things are in vain. (500) Days of Summer brought a bittersweet poignancy to a tale of breaking up; by comparison, the story of Dean and Cindy is merely bitter. But while the movies outlook on love and marriage is a sad one, its astonishingly real aesthetic, intensely human performances and heart-breaking emotional effect is simply undeniable.


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