Directed by Derek Cianfrance. Starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams.
83rd Oscars - 1 Nomination: Best Actress (Michelle Williams)
This is the first of the Oscar films -- and really of any of the films I've reviewed on this blog -- that I didn't care for, no, stronger... I didn't like. I wouldn't recommend it, though of course you may have different tastes in film than I do. Blue Valentine charts the course of a relationship from its beginning to its end. The film tells two stories in a parallel fashion; that of "boy meets girl", and that of "boy and girl's marriage implodes" several years later.
I found this film to be uncomfortable to watch and overly harsh in its creation of the main couple. I wasn't clear if the audience is supposed to root for them to stay together -- as was my initial instinct since we are also watching them fall in love -- or for them to just get it over with and separate -- which is where I ended up out of just plain dislike for both of the characters. I should add that I really wanted to like this film. It was created by a graduate from my school, so I feel a sense of pride (and reassurance) that Derek Cianfrance made it to the silver screen and Oscar nomination list with a big feature film. I even defended it as I walked out of the theater with my viewing companion. It was a very real portrayal of life (and that's a good thing), it took a non-Hollywood approach to love (which is refreshing), it was very creatively done... or so I argued.
But over time, I've come to realize that I didn't enjoy this film, and I didn't find any interesting ideas to make up for not liking it. It's non-traditional in its portrayal of love, but to the point that makes me miss the traditional approach. I mean, even though romantic comedies are full of fluff, you don't leave the theater feeling like my heart has been trampled repeatedly. It's not that I don't like breakup films -- Revolutionary Road from a few years ago was tragic and intense, yet poignant as well. The performances in Blue Valentine by Gosling and Williams were good, I suppose, in that they totally created a pair of people that felt so real that I knew their flaws by heart and hated them. The aging in the two plotlines was subtle and the distance between them was carefully built up. Furthermore, this film had one of the most subtle flip-flops in time that I've ever seen, from falling in love to falling out of it. This was probably my favorite aspect of the movie's style. As Roger Ebert says in his review, it "moves between present and past as if trying to figure out what went wrong." This feeling is carefully constructed, and it makes me wonder what other films Cianfrance is capable of creating.
Perhaps I haven't lived and loved enough to appreciate the nuances of this film's portrayal of the course of a relationship. Yes, I fully admit that this film may have gone over my head. But aside from that, this story was too far away from filmic conventions, from my comfort zone... that I just couldn't reconcile what I was seeing with what I'm used to seeing in this genre. I think this is what makes it stand out for some, but it didn't work for me. There were many films in this year's Oscar season that I had to stretch as a film viewer to see. They were out of my usual genres and taste, and I was glad I gave them a go. The Fighter, Rabbit Hole, 127 Hours, Black Swan ... these were all films I didn't think I wanted to see, but that I was glad I saw afterwards. Blue Valentine simply doesn't fall in this same category.
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