Blue Valentine

38

In as much as many believe the film is boring and lacked direction. I agree it was boring but it was more reality based to me The grandfather molding from a bad father and husband to a loving grandfather is as real as it gets The couples characters looking so confusing one minute they are laughing the next they are fighting is more real than not although to the last part where the child is holding on to the father does feel somehow. Overall its just a sad film

Bee Vee

I went to see "Blue Valentine" based on some mostly positive reviews it received and this is a main reason why I don't trust professional reviewers anymore. "Blue Valentine" is done in the "mumblecore" style of film making. The dialog appears to be improvised and the hand held camera makes it look like a documentary. That in itself would not normally doom a film, but the problem with "Blue Valentine" is that both characters are totally unlikable and we never really care about them. Dean is an alcoholic high school dropout and Cindy is a nurse who marries him because she can't do any better. The main problem with "Blue Valentine" is that it is extremely boring. It is like watching paint dry. If you like watching depressing lowlifes mumbling for 2 hours, you might like "Blue Valentine." Otherwise, be advised to stay away.

In outstanding performances, Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams bare their emotions and their bodies. In "500 Days of Summer" they told you what day it was. In this Dark Days of Winter you have to pretty much figure it out for yourself. About the second time the Michelle Williams character screams "I can't take it anymore" I couldn't either. No amount of sex on the screen is worth the pain and suffering. No need to hang around for a happy ending as you know there won't be one. Not only that, what makes you think he won't be back for another round of physical and emotional abuse in a sequel? Speaking of physical abuse, the only time the Gosling character was alone at work, and not surrounded by his big moving company buddies, was when the writers needed him to be alone at work. The nonlinear story telling got tiresome. It takes you away from where things are in the relationship and back to the happy wedding day way too late to care. At that point it was as meaningless, as the writer forced, liquor store encounter with the old, but important boy friend. Anytime the family dog dies in the first ten minutes you know you are not in for fun movie experience. Interesting cinematography, ranging from reflections, to up too close and personal. Rather than a fly on the wall, you feel like a voyeur to a very intimate relationship. It appears they will market this movie on the cute little dance song on the street and the hot steamy sex. Don't get sucked in. It is dark, painful, and heavy handed. If you don't walk in, you won't have to run out of the theater.

While the movie states that it is a love story, I think it depends on your definition of "love story" or how far that term stretches. Let me put it this way: This ain't your typical Valentines movie. It is heavy drama and it does depict relationship(s) very harshly. And because it feels so real, you can get sucked into it. The movie got some heat over one scene (rating wise there was some problem in the USA), but if you see it in context, it does make sense. It does hurt, but it makes sense. You should also watch out for the time-line. Though it can be easily followed (hairline), but it might confuse you for a second there. Great movie with great actors!

What a film this was. The story spans over some year and is about a man and wife with marital problems. I don't really want to tell you anything more...just watch it. I just finished, and they said this film stings...boy does it. The acting, first off, is exquisite. The back and forth from past to present was perfectly placed throughout the film and the overall outcome is so heart-wrenching, it feels like you've been punched in the stomach. Awards season, here this film comes... And The Soundtrack? I want it.....soooooo bad. Whoever did the music deserves a medal. Best Scenes: 1. The part where Ryan Gosling sings "You Always Hurt The Ones You Love" 2. The rest... Excuse Me Michelle... Michelle Williams seems to always play the role of a grieving wife/widow/cancer patient(Dawson's Creek) so maybe that's why she has this role down to a tee. It's not an insult, it's a compliment....or just an observation. I don't think I've ever seen her in a happy comedy role so maybe a future project...no, nevermind. Best Lines: 1. Dean: "In my experience, the prettier a girl is, the more nuts she is, which makes you insane." Cindy: "I like how you can compliment and insult somebody at the same time, in equal measure." 2. Dean: "I feel like men are more romantic than women. When we get married we marry, like, one girl, 'cause we're resistant the whole way until we meet one girl and we think I'd be an idiot if I didn't marry this girl she's so great. But it seems like girls get to a place where they just kinda pick the best option... 'Oh he's got a good job.' I mean they spend their whole life looking for Prince Charming and then they marry the guy who's got a good job and is gonna stick around." Overall: A wonderful and heartbreaking love story with spot on acting, singing, cinematography, directing and writing. It's so powerful, it out-shines most films I've seen this year and it's definitely going down as one of my favorites. 9.5 Stars. Read all my movie reviews at http://dianalynn5287.blogspot.com/

Four alarm alert!! This movie was sooo awful it was unbearable...I didn't know whether my wife felt the same way, so I didn't ask to leave (we don't speak during movies); AND, we had dinner reservations timed to the end of the movie. So...I sat there. BIG MISTAKE. The characters were shallow, the dialogue was not funny, clever or nuanced...nothing but dull. It seemed that half the scenes were improvised. I imagine the director saying: "OK folks...here's what's happening in this scene...feel it, and go for it. Ryan you start with this line 'blah blah' and Michelle, you respond like this 'blah.' Then, you both take it from here." And the endless ENDLESS close-ups...this looked like a film school project slated for 20 minutes that got out of hand. Depressing. And the sex scenes were as sexy as a state of the union speech. But, if you want to position yourself as kewl, you'll say you loved it. This is the cinematic equivalent of atonal music.

I thrive on difficult, complicated, emotionally raw films. I yearn for heartbreak and I love ambiguous endings...when they are earned. I even like films about people I don't like...when they stimulate my interest or emotion through a level of reality (or, for that matter, unreality) that communicates something--anything--genuine. I hated this film, because it felt rooted in another planet: indie-world, where cute hipsters revel and couple in movie-ish "joy" and fight and come apart in faux "anguish". I felt no discomfort except boredom in watching "Blue Valentine" because the actors, who've swept me up entirely into other so-called "difficult" films (Williams in "Wendy and Lucy", Gosling in "The Believer", for example), were utterly unempathizable (if intensely "acted") caricatures in this one. He was shorthand for an initially likable, none-too-bright slacker who turns out to wear poorly, she was destined from word one to be a brittle smart-aleck who finds it easy to fault others but recognizes none of her own, increasingly nasty flaws. The child is sweet (and a talented little actor) but is, sadly, just a plot device, not the emotional story center she could have been. The structure had promise, but the direction and script (or improvisation) were sloppy, the work of people who base their visions of reality on other films, not life. Muffed details like the clichéd "meet cute" or Cindy's dad's careless morphing from awful father to sensitive grandfather or the incredibly wooden level of dialog and acting in the doctor's office fight could have been overlooked if I simply cared about the people at the core of the story. But the pair were as fake as the "robot's *" of a sex-mecca offered up to show us how low their relationship had sunk. And, frankly, my dear, I couldn't have given less of a damn. Sorry to be a bring-down, folks, but this film, like Hans Christian Anderson's emperor, has no clothes. UPDATE, added almost 4 years later, having, in the meantime, seen and loved Cianfrance and Gosling's next collaboration, THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES: Guess I may have to view BLUE VALENTINE again...because I can't believe how well the synthesis between director and star works in their second film together. Hell, when the intricate Mr. Cianfrance showed up for Q&A after the PINES screening, the first thing everyone must have noticed is how much he physically looks what has to be his on screen avatar in the last two films he's helmed. Talk about sync. More on the VALENTINE this separated-at-birth duo this team pasted together when I see it again.

If ever there was a perfect film that defines the romantic relationship for the 21st century, Derek Cianfrance's 'Blue Valentine' is that film. We begin at a secluded ranch house where a little girl is trying to find her lost dog. We then see her father (Ryan Gosling) comforting her. Enter mom (Michelle Williams), the concerned mother who tries to balance work and her child's needs. Seems like a generally happy household, right? Wrong. Though they may not want to admit it, Dean and Cindy's marriage has been on the rocks for years. Dean decides to take his wife to a sex motel that ends up being more like a Star Trek motel to try to rekindle the way they used to feel about each other. The reason for their bickering is unclear until the flashbacks that have been following the main plot line give you a full understanding of why things have deteriorated so. You see them meet each other, fall madly in love, and then experience… well, you'll have to see it yourself. Personally, I think this is the tragic romance to end all tragic romances. Films will try to beat it, but they will have to work long and hard before they can eek out an ounce of the genuineness with which this film tells its story. Ryan Gosling's performance is one with a true everyman quality while allowing for a full-fledged, interesting character and a brilliantly realized character arc. Michelle Williams does the same. She delivers this role with so much raw truth that you almost forget that it's Michelle Williams and not just an average woman. I would not be surprised at all to see both of these superb talents get nominated for Best Actor Oscars, along with Derek Cianfrance for Best Director and the writing team for Best Original Screenplay. It's heartbreaking, it's deeply moving; it will have you laughing, crying and singing its praises. Even though the MPAA seems to have a beef with truth in filmmaking, it's hard to imagine this film not being discovered over time and being recognized for the infallible masterpiece that it is.