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An ambitionless man (Ryan Gosling) romances an ambitious woman (Michelle Williams) with unhappy results in “Blue Valentine.” |
Director/co-writer Derek Cianfrance says the aptly titled “Blue Valentine” is all about the death of love, and that pretty much describes the essence of this extraordinary chronicle of a relationship between two people destined for domestic disintegration.
This mature and insightful personal drama — shot in Super 16 mm. and RED digital formats — features two brave and uncompromised performances by Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling.
They play Cindy and Dean, who open the story as married parents of a wonderful daughter. They appear to be an average family, but quickly we discover the quirks that differentiate them have grown from small, tolerable fissures into chasms of unhappiness, at least for Cindy.
Dean pressures Cindy to go with him to a romance (read: sex) hotel, in what clearly is a desperate attempt to reconnect with her. (Note to guys: Adult resort visits can’t fix troubled relationships. Ever.) This doesn’t go well at all.
The movie periodically cuts away to happier, earlier times when Dean had a full head of hair and no glasses, and Cindy was young and ready for everything.
As time passes, and the flashbacks slowly catch up to the present, Cindy, a nurse, has ambitions to grow professionally and personally, while Dean never matures. He doesn’t want a career. He slavishly devotes himself to Cindy and their daughter Frankie, and Cindy begins to chafe under the constant, intense attention of her husband. (Read more…)