At the Movies: Blue Valentine

Everything you heard about ‘Blue Valentine’ is true. It is a great film but it sure isn’t a date movie as it might put you and your date off relationships and marriage for a very long time, but if you are happily single after years on the mend (especially after a particularly difficult and sad relationship/marriage break up) it might be just the film to see that makes you realize you made the right decision by parting ways with someone that wasn’t right for you anymore or in the first place.

Being a romantic fool and a softie that cries when hearing the first piano notes of ‘Married Life’ theme from Pixar’s ‘Up’ and by seeing teary eyed, visibly moved, sniffling sad audience members emerging from the earlier showing of the film, I thought I better eat my popcorn quick so I have my hands free for shuffling around my pocket in search of a tissue to wipe my eyes and fogged up glasses. I wished I had a glass of wine instead of a Coke to ease the effect of what I expected the film to have on me but I though I would brave ‘Blue Valentine’ with a clear mind.

And wow what a film. It has such rich emotional landscape; it is wise, honest, raw, sweet and bitter, painful, but not without moments of fun and happiness. ‘Blue Valentine’ is as far away from a romantic film you can get but in turn it is a rare and refreshing realistic portrayal of a relationship in it’s final stages of decay that is beyond help. And there is no happy ending. The film tells a story of Dean and Cindy (played brilliantly by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams) a married couple in their late twenties with a 6 year daughter. The film goes back and forth between the beginning of their whirlwind romance (shot beautifully in 16mm) to the point of the relationship 6 years later (shot digitally) that is in such a bad way it makes it painful to watch at times. Both Dean and Cindy are at their best when their meet; he is handsome, impulsive, charming, funny, caring and happy go lucky jobber, she is a beautiful, smart, ambitious, kooky, med student. Their strengths and good sides make way for exposing their flaws as the story unfolds and they become more evident as the present is dealt with and more of the back-story is revealed. Having such well rounded characters as Dean and Cindy, and such well thought through narrative cutting seamlessly between ‘now’ and ‘then’ allows you to figure out why and how things went bad for them and that’s what’s so great about this film. It involves you fully and if you stay with it you will figure it all out.

I take my hat off to the writer/director Derek Cianfrance for writing ‘Blue Valentine’ in the first place and the persistence of trying to get it made (it took 12 years) but I also take it off to Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling for coming on board of such a brave and emotionally complex film that required really good intelligent actors with a wide emotional range. They were truly fantastic. For their preparation for the film they spent a month living together as a family with their onscreen daughter, they have both gone through physical transformations, from being beautiful, trim, fresh faced young lovers to her looking tired and exhausted carrying a bit of weight around the middle (when you don’t give a shit how you look anymore) and him bulking up and balding, cigarette perpetually dangling from his mouth, a beer in hand to wash down his breakfast with. Both of them deserve a shelf full of awards.

‘Blue Valentine’ is a film of an immense emotional depth and I feel there is something for everyone to take from it. But I will always remember being at the Q&A with William Friedkin following the re-release of ‘The Excorcist’ where he said that the reason the film had such a strong impact on people wasn’t because of what they took from it but because of what they brought to it. This also applies to ‘Blue Valentine’ and you might see parts of yourself in it as well as parts of your past and present lovers, your friends, your parents and by watching the film you will probably relive some of your experiences or the ones of people you know. You might walk out of it crying, exhausted or like me dry-eyed but with certain realizations. What is certain is that this film will make you think and reflect. A lot.

To see the trailer clickHERE