Blue Valentine

This movie was never going to have a happy ending, I knew that going in. All I kept hearing was that was the most depressing movie of all time. Knowing that I took this to be a classic who done it? Like most people I want a fall guy, I want to know what happened here. I want to know why these beautiful and crazy kids are doomed to fail.

Enter Ryan Gosling as the care-free Dean, i doubt he had too much going for him before this story starts and is not too worried about his future. While talented at many things he lacks any ambition and just enjoys the moment. His partner in crime is the recently nominated actress Michelle Williams as Cindy. She seems much more cynical, promiscuous, and is always looking ahead to accomplish more. While opposites may attract these two philosophies of life seem to be at odds in the film.

Dean found everything he needs in this little family, instantly making him the more likable character. He treats his daughter like a princess and shows her all the adoration she could ever need. But apparently The Beatles were wrong and a little bit more than love is needed. Cindy has grown into the woman she had to be to help the family survive as a middle-class family in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Dean is more immature and found a job that lets him drink in the middle of the day and be there for his family.

These two actors are constantly looking for challenging roles, and in this movie it appears they have found one. How does one portray, in a believable fashion, a six year difference where everything has changed, it would be too much and unbelievable to go from one extreme to another so rather they both rely on subtly, Williams more so. There also seems to be a lot of free riffing and improvisation such as the scene on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Gosling is experienced with this kind of acting as he has gone out of his way to find strong independent movies. He easily could be making boat loads of money with huge box office numbers but has always gone after meatier scripts. He plays this role well with a lot of professional experience. His couterpart Williams seems to draw her inspiration more from her own past. At the time this movie was supposed to be made Heath Ledger passed away and out of respect to her and her daughter they delayed shooting. Upon learning this you have to wonder if some of this life experience went into the performance. She rolled effortlessly into this role and played it with such quiet strength, while maybe not the more likable of the two, the performance is stunning.

Writer/director Derek Cianfrance wrote this story in 2006 and in two parts. He says the beginning is a love story and the ending is a tragedy, but this isn't split into two distinct halves. Rather the stories are spliced together using high def digital video for the present, while the beginning of the relationship (which is always a little fuzzy) is shot on 16-mm film. This story telling helps to accentuate each moment.

But what is never seen is the middle, what happened between these two moments that left these people like this. To the story those moments are not important, it's not important to place blame but rather an examination of how two people can meet and what little it takes to fall in and out of love. Still the effect it can leave on you is overwhelming.

Much like a real relationship both sides have their demons and both sides contribute to the end. It's frightening how truthful this movie feels to watch a couple just fall out of love. And Cianfrance doesn't show us his hand, he may lead us in certain directions, but we never see how Cindy and Dean have come to this point in their lives after overcoming so much. Much like in real life they never say where it all went wrong all we are left with are the biggest moments of any relationship, the beginning and end of it. A-