Review: Blue Valentine

Review: Blue Valentine

Rating: ***1/2

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 89%

Audience: 83%

I just reviewed I Love You Phillip Morris, a movie so unlike ordinary life it strains credibility -- even when we know it's based on fact. And then I watched Blue Valentine, a movie so universal, so much like real life, it is downright painful to watch.

The story is simple. A young couple played by Ryan Gosling (Dean) and Michelle Williams (Cindy) have been married about five years. Dean works as a painter and is an alcoholic. Cindy works in a doctor's office and has long engaged in the codependent dance so characteristic of the desperate wives of alcoholics. When we first see the couple, their marriage is dissolving; Dean desperately tries to rekindle their old romance, but his alcoholism transmogrifies every well-intentioned move he makes.

In a series of flashbacks, we see the sweet story of how they met, how they fell in love, and how they shared their hopes and dreams. In those grainy memories, however, we see that the seeds of destruction were sown right from the beginning of their relationship. Like so many people, they married for the wrong reasons and didn't really understand or articulate what they needed from one another.

Blue Valentine is the story of so many marriages, especially those doomed from the start by addiction. But this isn't Days of Wine and Roses. It's more subtle than that film. What makes this movie so poignant is the love (however flawed) that Dean and Cindy have for each either. Remnants remain, even at their most debased moments. Gosling and William's performances are subtle, painful, and passionately honest. I'm glad I saw this film, but it was tough to watch.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price

$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it