Blue Valentine: une histoire d'amour

Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy Heller-Pereira (Michelle Williams) are a married couple. This movie jumps back and forth to show their relationship over time. They have a girl named Frankie. He works menial jobs and she works as a nurse. He's a slacker and she's the tired responsible one. They both come from dysfunctional families. She runs into Bobby Ontario at the liquor store which causes friction between the couple. It turns out that Bobby is her former boyfriend with a big secret between them.

This is a great little indie about love that fades. By the end, it seems that their early flirtations are from another life. Gosling and Williams give subtle but profound performances. Most compelling is that they are about to give two slightly different versions of the same characters. The movie takes it slowly as it unravels this relationship.

Director Derek Cianfrance may wish to stop wasting his talent on TV and make films his full time occupation. Cinema could use him. His 'Blue Valentine' studies the breakdown of a marriage through beautiful and heartbreaking juxtaposed scenes of past joy and optimism with present scenes of misery and depression. Flitting back and forth in the marriage, it asks: Is romantic love the ultimate form of masochism?

Fine young actors Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams play Dean and Cindy, who unite through a dogged courtship. Dean is easy-going, happy-go-lucky and content in his removal and packing company. He is chary of formal education, but has a philosopher's outlook. Cindy is sexually over-active and, although occasionally frolicsome, is more mature than Dean. About five years on, romance becomes repulsion, and their marriage becomes one of inconvenience.

Make no mistake, this is uncomfortable viewing – not the sex, which serves the story quite well – but the paranoia, pettiness and pugnacity in the couple's interaction. They reach their nadir when he practically begs for affection, and she pleads with him to be more ambitious.

No two actors have complemented each other this well for some time. In an age where vapid acting is vogue, Gosling is a novelty. He is very charming, yet he has a mournful countenance, and possesses a James Dean-like vulnerability. He'd be my poster-on-the-wall if I were 13.

I can't get that entrancing scene where Dean serenades Cindy out of my head. Dean's philosophical outpourings may be interpreted by some as drivel, but more sensitive viewers will detect the shattering honesty. A memorable maxim: 'Girls spend their whole life looking for Prince Charming and then marry the guy who's got a good job and is gunna stick around.'

We go to the movies – many of us – to escape real life. Comfortable as voyeurs, we let our favourite stars distract us and we forget our worries. But 'Blue Valentine' shows a truth no cinema can shield us from. It mustn't be missed.

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Greetings again from the darkness. OK, so I was extremely surprised to be the only male in a theater with 30 plus viewers. I had not once previously thought of this as a chick flick. In fact, it is quite a weighty relationship expose' and that explains the lack of present men. What is surprising is that while the film is about the ever-so-slow crumbling of a marriage, there is no blame placed at the feet of any one person, as is so often the case in Hollywood.

You might have already guessed that this is no upbeat, loosie-goosie rom-com. Rather, it is a bleak look at a marriage that starts with good intentions and fades into misery. On the plus, we witness an acting clinic by two of today's absolute best ... Ryan Gosling as Dean and Michelle Williams as Cindy. Dean is quite the oddball romantic as he strums his ukulele and quivers "You Always Hurt the Ones You Love" in a bit of foreshadowing. Cindy, on the other hand, is a bit more ambitious and has dreams of medical school.

The two meet by happenstance in the hallway of a nursing home when Cindy is visiting her grandmother. Immediately, there are sparks and after Cindy's macho boyfriend proves his true rotten self to her, she becomes more enamored with Dean. When an unexpected pregnancy occurs, Dean is pretty quick to stand up for Cindy and they set off to build a life together.

Flash forward 6 years and Dean has changed very little, while Cindy just seems totally beaten down. They both cherish their precious daughter Frankie (played by newcomer Faith Wladyka) but their relationship is nowhere, gone, kaput. Even an attempted one-night getaway to a themed hotel doesn't provide the relief they need. Instead, it's the final straw. When Cindy repeats "I'm done" ... we don't doubt her at all.

Director and co-writer Derek Cianfrance does a tremendous job with the details and creating the personalities of these two people. Every relationship requires work and failure can be predicted when one gives up and the other pretends all is fine. This one probably won't save any marriages, but it is worth seeing just to watch Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams in action.

Love is not only a product that always turns out great. Love is also not a energy that always lives forever. Even with the greatest memories, one doesn't necessarily hold on a love pattern with another person for his or her entire life. I was happy that Blue Valentine showed that side of love. Love can be filled with hatred. Love can express jealousy. It's a strong feeling, so why wouldn't it arise other strong emotions?

Blue Valentine represents realisticly a failing relationship. From the over-the-shoulder perspective, the depth of field mainly focusing on character and the exceptionnal acting by Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling, it felt like you couldn't stand being in that relationship. It was so real.

Also, kudos to the soundtrack.

With the growing number of divorce in America, the "happily ever after" shown in Hollywood films are now far-fetched dreams and no longer a reality. Blue Valentine chooses instead to give its viewers a story of unrestrained truth. This film gives us a raw and painful account of a married couple that was once deep in romance and drama but over time had grown apart. Reality stripped them of the passion they once felt toward one another. The film jumps back and forth between the story of how they met and the current turmoil they are in now. Director Derek Cianfrance does an exceptional job of bringing to the screen the gritty and messiness of a failed marriage. Cianfrance definitely understands the searing pain of a couple that has to call it quits not due to abuse or infidelity but simply because they cannot return to the love they once had. Blue Valentine makes the viewer uncomfortable because it is strikingly identifiable. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams were amazing together; they successfully capture in every scene the multiple layers and the complexity of a relationship. They feed off of one another on screen and their chemistry is authentic, so much so, that it is often times difficult to swallow. The director's choice to have the two actors live together off screen paid off on camera. Blue Valentine is profound, intense and real. It is definitely a "must-see".