Broken Home: My review of Blue Valentine

Romantic dramas, due to contrary belief, are NOT simply boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy marries girl etc.....no, that's what happens in Hollywood. Unfortunately, Derek Cianfrance's "Blue Valentine" is not Hollywood. Far from it. This is real. Love, marriage and children all carry their own individual burdens. Put bluntly, romance just got hardcore.

The concept is simple. A contemporary married couple recolate how their relationship came to be over the course of 24 hours. This necessitates temporal shifts and a non-linear narrative, that describe the happy pre-marriage couple and the deeply unsettled present married couple. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams start as the married couple to great effect. Not only is it believable; its passionate and brutal, sweet and emotional, heart-wrenching and unnerving. All of these words describe exactly the kind of experience you should expect from seeing Blue Valentine.

In order to see this movie, I had to go to the Sheffield Showroom; my local independant cinema (thank god its there) since the big megaplexes like Cineworld are far too mainstream for this kind of indie flick. Therefore, the attention the film has received has been minimal compared to say, The King's Speech. Frankly, this is a good thing. I wouldn't have wanted to see this on a big screen. Its not that kind of movie. You have to embrace its quality and it really came to life on a small screen; most of the audience I was with definately reacted a great deal to some of the more emotional scenes than I thought they would. Independant cinema holds some brilliant gems, this being one of the more recent ones. So, like I say, I'm lucky to have a cinema that can get hold movie prints such as Blue Valentine. It will have disappeared by tomorrow, so I caught it when I could!

Stylistically, director Cianfrance uses Super 16mm for the pre-marriage sequences to create a grainy filter across the lens. Like the guy who introduced the film to me before the screening, I agreed with him when he said this adds authenticity and acts as fading memories of a once happy couple. Its genuinely powerful stuff, cause once we shift back to the present, he uses crisp stark imagery that really emphasises the declining relationship between Gosling and Williams. Along with vibrant colours of (guess what!) blue, it sets a unsettling tone that never lets up once. The tension is ever-present and it really hurts you as an audience member to see what the couple were once like. These pre-marriage sequences only serve to make the emotion of their decline worse. Its a brilliant and original technique; something I'm sure other filmmakers will pick up on. If its not original, so be it but Cianfrance uses it in a stylish way to compliment his own film and it works.

Performance-wise, you got Ryan Gosling giving ANOTHER Oscar worthy nod. I loved Colin Firth in The King's Speech. ALOT. He was fantastic and definately deserves the Award. However, I wish the Academy would recognise Gosling again after the brilliant Half-Nelson. He's one of the best of his generation and for once, I wish they didn't ride the hype of one performance and give it someone who exerts raw passion and emotion the way in which Gosling does. I know he won't get the Award or probably a nomination, but in my eyes; he's a worthy winner. Michelle Williams is also on fine form; her quiet, shy nature forms a conflict between her and Gosling that re-inforces the uncertainty of their future. The moments when she breaks under the pressure are wonderful pieces of acting and absolute credit to her performance. Without her, Gosling wouldn't have excelled the way he did.

I'd tell you to go catch this movie but I doubt you'll be able to. That is unless you have an independant cinema close by or God forbid, your actual cinema is showing this. I get the feeling its had a limited release but thats the way I want it. I like to feel that this was a special experience. It really really was and I know the whole audience felt that. 

A simple concept executed to perfection, "Blue Valentine" went beyond my expectations and is already in my Top 10 of 2011. Maybe by the end of the year Top 5. I will not be forgetting this anytime soon and neither should you. Remember the title. You'll want to watch it when its on DVD.

A rare 5 out of 5 stars.

Thanks for reading!
Tomorrow, I will be seeing Black Swan (arugably my most anticipated so far this year) and therefore a review will emerge sometime tomorrow. Look out for it! 

Peace out!
Tward