Blue Valentine is an honest and emotional depiction of the beginning and eventual end of a relationship between Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams), showing in parallel the happy beginnings of the relationship and the moments before its final demise.
Most films end at the point the couple finally gets together and we presume they must have a ‘happily ever after’ outcome because we don’t know any different. Real life teaches us something else. Real life teaches us about arguments and breakups, about how, as Ryan Gosling sings, you always hurt the ones you love. Life teaches us about the things no one wants to tell you about. No one wants to cause heartbreak or be heartbroken but love rarely lasts forever.
I can’t really say that Blue Valentine is an enjoyable film, or that I loved it because those words don’t fit this film. What I can say is that it’s honest, beautiful, emotional, and heartbreaking with incredible performances from Gosling and Williams, both of who received Golden Globe Nominations for their roles.
The film starts towards the end of their relationships, about five years into it, and only about twenty minutes in does it begin to flash back to each of their lives, and when they first meet. From then onwards each timeline runs in parallel, fifteen minutes of their present day relationship then fifteen minutes of carrying on where we left off in the past. Unless you already know the time frame is going to be split, the choice to run two timelines can be a little disorientating at first but you quickly adjust, and that split is one of the reasons that makes this film so unique.
Not only is Blue Valentine brutally honest, it’s filmed with a lot of close ups and using a handheld camera, all of which culminates to a film which incorporates so much realism you believe you could be watching a documentary.
Originally given an NC-17 (18) rating in America due to some of its most sexual and violent scenes, it meant it would barely receive any cinematic release and would be equally difficult even to purchase on DVD. Quite possibly making movie history the MPAA changed its mind after an appeal giving it a more deserving R (15) rating. Although Blue Valentine didn’t deserve such an initial high rating, this definitely isn’t a film to take your mum too (Ryan Gosling may have taken his Mum to see it at Sundance but he had an ipod and an eye mask at the ready).
The final scenes are beautifully filmed and edited and are equally heart-warming and heartbreaking. It is possibility my favourite ending of any film (perhaps only triumphed by Requiem for a Dream). As with any relationship that simply runs its course it’s nearly impossible to force blame on either character, but Dean, tears streaming and utterly fighting his heart out for the relationship took my breath away.
Blue Valentine is certainly not a ‘chick-flick’, and one to be entered into cautiously if you have recently/are currently in a break up. The only way to describe it would be the oxymoron romantic tragedy, but for those willing, it is beautiful, poignant, and wonderful.
