Why can't you just love him? He's so good! He's almost perfect...
Blue Valentine is nothing like its suggestive poster. It is about a lot of snugging and kissing, yes, but the aroma of a beautiful relationship that could have happened. That's what the maker wanted to portray, and that's what he did. The disappointment of lost opportunities looms large as the story about a modern married couple unfolds. With each flashback sequence, the poignance of the most basic human issue becomes more and more pronounced.
Dean, portrayed by Ryan Gosling, seems to be the wild husband that a wife should (and yes, 'Should' is the word I use) love. She could have doubts about him teaching the right things to her daughter, but as a loving husband and father, Dean is absolutely delightful. Fathered by a single janitor, Dean is a loathsome miserable man. As rightly stated by the Entertainment Review, his "seeping misery infects the entire film; for a character who can be so awful, he's also strangely easy to love." Going by the raw performance, its surprising that Gosling did not grab an Academy nomination.
On the other side of the horizon is Cindy, played by Michelle Williams, who is a doctor trying to play her part as a good mother. She probably succeeds in this role, but as a wife, she struggles to tolerate her husband's whims and desires. Speaking from a woman's perspective, it is almost difficult to like her, in spite of her miseries. Her judgements about her husband's behaviour, even his natural advances, often look rude and unjustified. It is sad that the script reveals only just enough information about her past to be able to write her off as a tempestuous and characterless female. Opposite her low-class husband who blooms with a 'rich interior life and complicated morality', she seems rather hollow and uncompromising, giving rise to the same question again and again... ''Why can't she just love him?'' Williams' multiple nominations are well deserved for the strong and sensitive portrayal that Cindy demanded.
This is the central theme that directs the movie - the way life happens. Sometimes you have the best person in the universe to call your own and are unable to return the affection for no apparent reason; and sometimes you fall for the most undesirable epitomes of imperfection.
Whether Blue Valentine bags an Oscar is yet to be seen. Apart from being marketed well, it is a sharp depiction of the miseries of life that have the potential of ruining promising relationships. As far as the movie is concerned, "I can't forget it, but I'm not sure that I'll be seeing it again."
Blue Valentine is nothing like its suggestive poster. It is about a lot of snugging and kissing, yes, but the aroma of a beautiful relationship that could have happened. That's what the maker wanted to portray, and that's what he did. The disappointment of lost opportunities looms large as the story about a modern married couple unfolds. With each flashback sequence, the poignance of the most basic human issue becomes more and more pronounced.
Dean, portrayed by Ryan Gosling, seems to be the wild husband that a wife should (and yes, 'Should' is the word I use) love. She could have doubts about him teaching the right things to her daughter, but as a loving husband and father, Dean is absolutely delightful. Fathered by a single janitor, Dean is a loathsome miserable man. As rightly stated by the Entertainment Review, his "seeping misery infects the entire film; for a character who can be so awful, he's also strangely easy to love." Going by the raw performance, its surprising that Gosling did not grab an Academy nomination.
On the other side of the horizon is Cindy, played by Michelle Williams, who is a doctor trying to play her part as a good mother. She probably succeeds in this role, but as a wife, she struggles to tolerate her husband's whims and desires. Speaking from a woman's perspective, it is almost difficult to like her, in spite of her miseries. Her judgements about her husband's behaviour, even his natural advances, often look rude and unjustified. It is sad that the script reveals only just enough information about her past to be able to write her off as a tempestuous and characterless female. Opposite her low-class husband who blooms with a 'rich interior life and complicated morality', she seems rather hollow and uncompromising, giving rise to the same question again and again... ''Why can't she just love him?'' Williams' multiple nominations are well deserved for the strong and sensitive portrayal that Cindy demanded.
This is the central theme that directs the movie - the way life happens. Sometimes you have the best person in the universe to call your own and are unable to return the affection for no apparent reason; and sometimes you fall for the most undesirable epitomes of imperfection.
Whether Blue Valentine bags an Oscar is yet to be seen. Apart from being marketed well, it is a sharp depiction of the miseries of life that have the potential of ruining promising relationships. As far as the movie is concerned, "I can't forget it, but I'm not sure that I'll be seeing it again."
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Cast : Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams and Faith Wladyka
P.S. - Faith Wladyka is one adorable child. Beautiful and natural as Frankie. The major reviving spirit in an otherwise dismal tale.
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