Blue Valentine (2010) The Weinstein Company/Drama RT: 112 minutes Rated R (strong graphic sexual content, nudity, language, a scene of violence) Director: Derek Cianfrance Screenplay: Derek Cianfrance, Joey Curtis and Cami Delavigne Music: Grizzly Bear Cinematography: Andrij Parekh Release date: January 28, 2011 (US) Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Faith Wladyka, John Doman, Mike Vogel, Marshall Johnson, Jen Jones, Maryann Plunkett, James Benatti, Barbara Troy, Carey Westbrook, Ben Shankman, Eileen Rosen. Box Office: $9.7M (US)/$15.4M (World)
Rating: ****
It’s rare to see a film as brutally honest about marriage as Blue Valentine. Too many people have a romanticized vision of it thanks in no small part to Hollywood continually churning out these romantic fantasies with happy, fairy-tale endings that typically involve a wedding. Anybody that’s married or has been married knows the story doesn’t end there. Life goes on for the couple. Wedded bliss gives way to adult concerns like family, careers and money. It takes a lot of effort and dedication to maintain a marriage. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out. There are a lot of reasons why marriages end, some easier to explain than others. It can be something easily identifiable like adultery or abuse. Other times, it’s a matter of one partner falling out of love with the other. The change is so gradual; it goes unnoticed until one partner gets hit with the realization they don’t even like the person sleeping next to them. That’s where the story begins in Blue Valentine.
The viewer immediately knows something is off with Cindy (Williams, Brokeback Mountain) and Dean (Gosling, The Notebook), a young married couple living in rural Pennsylvania with their 6YO daughter Frankie (Wladyka). Relations are clearly strained between the couple. It can be heard in the way they communicate with each other. They speak without actually connecting. It can also be seen in her attitude towards him. She’s cold and indifferent to him. He doesn’t get why. She’s holding a lot back. As Blue Valentine progresses, we learn what. She’s frustrated by his lack of maturity and motivation. He loves his job as a house painter; it’s one of the few jobs where he can crack open his first beer at 8am. His drinking, that’s another concern. He, in turn, is frustrated by her constantly resisting his attempts at romance and sex. They argue a lot. Their failing marriage is a powder keg on the brink of exploding.
Most filmmakers would chronicle the deterioration of the marriage showing the audience exactly what went wrong. Director Derek Cianfrance (The Place Beyond the Pines) takes a much different approach. He juxtaposes scenes from the end of Dean and Cindy’s marriage with scenes from the beginning of their relationship. There is no middle to this story. While we’re never told what brought them from where they were then to where they are now, it’s obvious they somehow grew apart during that span of time. It started pretty great though.
It’s not like Dean and Cindy’s paths were meant to cross. He lives in New York; she’s from Pennsylvania. She’s a pre-med student; he’s a high school drop-out who works for a moving company. She plans to be a doctor; he has no plan at all. She’s just coming out of an abusive relationship when they cross paths for the first time. They have one of those chance meetings where two people meet in an unlikely place; in their case, a retirement home. She’s visiting her grandmother at the same time he’s helping a new resident move in. He gives her his number. She doesn’t call. He tracks her down. After some initial awkwardness, they start dating and fall deeply in love.
The drama culminates in a harrowing scene at the clinic where Cindy works. Dean shows up drunk and they have this huge heated argument in which they finally make their true feelings known. WOW! That’s all I can say about it.
Blue Valentine nearly got slapped with an NC-17 rating for an explicit scene of Dean performing oral sex on Cindy. This is a perfect example of the old MPAA double standard regarding sex scenes. It’s perfectly within the limits of an R when a woman goes down on a man. Hell, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective got a PG-13 even though it’s heavily implied it happens to Ace in one scene. If the situation is reversed, it’s considered pornographic. What’s their problem with women being pleasured? In any event, it was changed to an R on appeal without a single cut being made.
It’s not just the non-linear narrative structure that sets Blue Valentine apart from the pack; it’s also the artful cinematography by Andrij Parekh. He shoots the “then” scenes in 16mm and switches to Red One for the “now” scenes. As a result, the “then” scenes have a brighter, softer look like memories filtered through nostalgic hindsight with a slight hint of melancholy from knowing it doesn’t end well for them. The “now” scenes take on a detached feeling with scenes of the estranged lovers shot from afar. It was a stroke of genius on Cianfrance’s part to use juxtaposition to tell Dean and Cindy’s sad, emotionally charged story. The different visual styles make it all the more tangible.
Both Gosling and Williams deliver powerhouse performances in Blue Valentine. The highest praise I can bestow on them is that they are completely authentic in their respective roles. They never once lapse into melodrama. Their largely improvised dialogue cuts like a knife. What’s even more impressive is how they convincingly depict their complex characters at different stages in life. Older Cindy is noticeably exhausted, both physically and emotionally, while younger Cindy is filled with hope. Older Dean is bitter, resentful and desperate to keep the marriage alive when it should be taken off life support. His attempts to spice things up, like taking Cindy to a cheesy motel for a night of passion, feel forced. He too looks worn down by life; a stark contrast to the happy-go-lucky guy he was just six years earlier. In order to prepare for their roles, the two actors moved into a rented home and acted like a couple, living on a budget based on their characters’ incomes and staging arguments. It obviously worked. Thanks to their volatile chemistry, Blue Valentine is a uniquely visceral viewing experience.
Cianfrance makes a startling directorial debut with an emotionally complex film that stays with you long after the final credits stop rolling. He pulls no punches in any aspect, allowing his characters to display raw, non-artificial emotion. The “now” sex scenes aren’t tantalizing; they’re an illustration of how far the couple has drifted apart. The look on Williams’ face as her husband tries to make love to her in a crappy motel room says she just wants it to be over with. The flame of passion has long since been snuffed out by dreary reality.
It’s natural to hope for a happy ending when watching a movie, mainly because such endings aren’t a given in real life. There are no easy solutions to complicated problems in real life. It would be self-defeating on the director’s part to offer a pat solution to the main characters’ problems in Blue Valentine. They’ve gone unchecked for too long to be fixed. That’s how life is. Sometimes we stay in a bad situation trying to make it better even though we know deep down it’s hopeless. The saddest part is the realization that the love they once shared can’t be salvaged. The final shot is one of the most heartbreaking I’ve ever seen. I love that Cianfrance has the balls to not cop out with a fake happy Hollywood ending. Blue Valentine is honest enough to tell it like it is. It’s the best film of its kind since Alan Parker’s incredible Shoot the Moon. It’s an adult film dealing with adult subjects in a realistic way. It’s a heavy movie, but it’s definitely worth the effort.
