Falling out of love

I'm trying to catch up with some of the more acclaimed movies I missed throughout the year, leading me to the Oscar nominated Blue Valentine, a moving drama about marital disintegration directed by Derek Cianfrance. Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) meet almost by accident; he's a mover helping an old man settle into his new room at an old age home, while she's there visiting her grandmother. We learn enough about the characters to know that Cindy comes with considerable baggage and may attempting to consciously not allow the past to repeat itself. Dean's needs are, at least on the surface, simple; he likes this blonde, lively girl, and she exhibits some cute dance moves. All of this we learn in flashback as Cianfrance creates a stark contrast between the initial romance of the couple's past and the couple in their current state, where their daughter Frankie is all that seems to keep them together. 

Blue Valentine has at its center a towering performance by Williams (so memorable in "Brokeback Mountain") and a lesser, yet compelling one from Gosling. While the latter seems to inhabit his sunglasses and jowls too much at times to convince as an inwardly broken man, Williams' Cindy is a character defined from within, not without. This film could not have succeeded with lesser actors attempting to breathe life into the dialogue. 

The greatest compliment I can pay the film is to call it a near great movie. There are some structural issues and some content issues; the bit with Cindy's previous boyfriend seems rather redundant, in spite of its clear payoff. There are good scenes, like the opening scenes setting the tone for what is to follow, and lesser scenes, such as Dean bursting in on Cindy at work and letting things get out of hand. With some trimming, Blue Valentine would've been an improved film. As it is, it's a vivid illustration of love found and lost altogether pointing out a larger problem in defining what people might mean when referring to 'love'. As a film, it's a somber antidote to continuous Hollywood romantic mythmaking.

Note: There was some controversy upon the film's initial release in the United States about it's so-called "explicit content". What the film shows is how sex is about power as much as pleasure, and it's nowhere near as graphic as, for example, Lust, Caution. It is unfortunate that some viewers may be put off by the film's sexualised aura; at the same time, those looking for soft core fun should steer clear.