Blue Valentine

[Vanilla]

Review/Discuss

[rockNrollaDIM]

A few of my friends are obsessed with this movie, in a "we watch it so we can be depressed" kind of way. So I finally caught up with it.I was expecting it to be alot more of a downer but I really didn't think it was all that horrible, for some reason I thought it involved rape/abuse but it didn't. It was a story about a relationship that started off innocent enough but then turned into a marriage of necessity- something they had to do, basically, because of her pregnancy- even with the twist you find out via flashback about Gosling. Ultimately this is about a love story that couldn't work, when one person is clearly more invested in the relationship than the other... I thought it was enjoyable, I liked the flashback scenes the best. Williams and Gosling both had likable, quirky characters. One thing that really confused me is why they aged Ryan Gosling so much in the present day. The daughter could not have been older than 6 or 7 so why is he suddenly balding and looks like shit after just a few years? Overall I thought it felt incomplete by the end... there was something missing.7.5/10

[acsc1312]

Saw this for the second time on Showtime the other night and liked it more. Acting is great of course. I was wondering the same thing about Gosling's hair, Adam. I don't quite like the abrupt ending, but it's a good movie.A-

[baumer]

When i saw the trailer for this, I hated it. They made the film look too quirky for a mainstream audience. I held off seeing this until now. My loss. Blue Valentine is one of the best films of 2010. The film is billed as a depressing look at love and losing love. I see it differently. It is about loss, but it's about marriage and how hard it is to keep the flame alive. Williams and Gosling are so perfect in this it's scary. There is so much pain in Williams peformance and so much light that turns ugly in Goslings. But when you see all that Dean went through with Cindy, all he sacrificed to be with her, it really upset me to see how it all ends. As he said to his wife at the very painful end, "You said you'd love me forever, for better or for worse. Well, I'm at my worst. Help me get better. Tell me what to do. Tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it." But at this point, the feeling of him, the idea of him is grating to her and she just can't take it anymore. I didn't hate Williams (her character) in this but you could see that she wasn't the most stable person in the world. Abusive father, angry parents and she got pregnant very young. It would be tough growing up like this. BV is a miracle in that it is a small film with such brilliant performances and crisp directing and a script that is so real and so true to life that it really irks me that it didn't win anything last year. Gosling not being nominated for best actor is an absolute travesty. 10/10

[Hatebox]

Yes, very good film. I like the way on first viewing it seems to set gosling's character up as the bad guy/screw up, but looking beyond the surface you realise williams' character is just as (if not more) guilty of the relationship's decline.

[RobinHood26]

After seeing Place Beyond the Pines I had to go out and get this. Wow, Gosling is so damn good, and so is everybody else!

 

A-

[baumer]

So jealous that you got to see Pines, Jay.

[RobinHood26]

So jealous that you got to see Pines, Jay.

You should be Its a must see. Its expanding more again next week, you gotta go.

[RobinHood26]

And I forgot to say, how damn beautiful is 16mm. It just looks alive! 

[The Stingray]

An authentic and heartbreaking look into a failing marriage. Wonderfully told and brilliantly acted. I need to watch more movies like this instead of silly and forgettable blockbusters.

 

A-