Blue Valentine (2010, Cianfrance)
January 12th 2011 04:32
Blue Valentine (2010, Cianfrance)
Written January 11, 2011
The film Blue Valentine (directed by co-written and directed by Derek Cianfrance and starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams) could, in actuality, be two films. Specifically, the flashbacks in the film could be an entirely separate film on their own merit -- with a middle, beginning, and an end; with character arcs and linear storyline, straight forward tone, and a happy ending. To be even more specific, a boy who is down on his luck, taking odd jobs to get by, could randomly meet a girl who cares for her elderly grandmother and has been unlucky in love. She could meet and fall in love with this boy. And they could face all the problems of ex-boyfriends and disapproving parents and pregnancy. They could face all of this and love would still prevail. And they could get married and it could end there. This could be a legitimate full length film and it could be very satisfying.
But then you look at Blue Valentine, and what it is as a whole, and how it includes all of the above but doesn’t give us this easy way out—instead, it presents a non-linear story of what happens after happily ever after; of what happens after the lights come up and the credits roll. And what does happen is precisely why we are more accustomed to romantic comedies or sappy melodrama: what happens is life.
Gosling and Williams are Dean and Cindy, a married couple with a young daughter. Each appears run down by life. Cindy barely says two words to Dean at a given moment. Dean is seemingly drunk the majority of the time. Dean suggests he and Cindy go to a motel for the night, after a sad event occurs in the family. With their daughter at Cindy’s parents’ house, she reluctantly agrees. The story inter-cuts present events (revealing, in sparse detail, the dysfunction within the current state of their relationship) and the first few months of their first encounter.
Blue Valentine does not rely on specific details; we’re given puzzle pieces but must make them fit on our own accord. We know that Cindy is a nurse and works long hours. We know that Dean works as a painter and starts drinking by 8am most days. We know they’ve been fighting a lot lately. We know we’re only seeing a very limited amount of time in their at least 5 years of marriage. This isn’t a story to issue blame or point fingers. No, this is a story to ask yourself: how does one get from point A to point B – to ask yourself how you reconcile your past relationships and patterns at the start of a new one.
Gosling and Williams are fantastic, each providing raw emotion in a believable fashion. The pair is superbly directed by Cianfrance, who knows just where to place his camera. He also paces the film expertly; his cuts are seamless between shifts in time-period and each transition flows with precision. Cianfrance also does an excellent job in avoiding melodrama. The score by Grizzly Bear, which in actuality is instrumental pieces of their various songs, is a simple yet stunningly beautiful inclusion and adds greatly to the tone and feel of the film.
The end of Blue Valentine is crescendo of emotion and sound – it doesn’t try to wrap the events up in a neat package because we all know life isn’t like that. Moreover, it doesn’t try to pretend that these lives end once the credits roll. Instead, there will be a tomorrow and maybe the scales will tip one way above the other or maybe they won’t. Blue Valentine is a gorgeous, rare gem that is garnering a fair amount of TV spots and publicity, largely due to the controversy over its previous NC-17 rating (which was thankfully overturned). Regardless of the controversy, attention toward the film is wholly deserving.
Gosling and Williams are two of the finest young actors working today – and Derek Cianfrance has made a film that any director would be proud to have on his or her resume. Blue Valentine should be sought out and devoured. It should be savored and pondered and given praise for its beauty and unflinching honesty.
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