“Blue Valentine” Review

I’ve been putting off finalizing my 2010 Top 10 List because of this movie.  I had a feeling it would pop up somewhere on that list.  It does.  It is the best film of 2010.

“Blue Valentine” shows the two ends of a relationship — the blossoming of love in the first few months and the disintegration of a marriage a few years later.  We are not privy to the time in between.  It doesn’t matter.  Anyone who has lived life can fill in the gap with their own experiences.

Director, Derek Cianfrance, interlaces the two timelines, elegantly painting the picture of Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) from their initial momentary glance to their final acceptance of failure. We get to know this couple so intimately and so completely that our emotions are engaged as if we are actually experiencing the relationship.

Consider the most memorable scene of the year, when Gosling sings “You Always Hurt the One You Love” and Williams tap dances in her biker boots.  It is such a simple cinematic moment, but it recreates one of “those” moments.  We all have one or two in our lives.  They are the moments that first come to our mind when we think back on the happiest times.

Gosling and Williams left me speechless.  Their performances are extraordinary in every way.  At no point does it seem like actors acting.  They filmed the early part of the story first, often using one take to capture a line or an improvised moment.  They then went on hiatus for six months while Gosling and Williams actually lived together 24 hours a day in an effort to capture the familiarity required for the other half of the story.  For the scenes where the marriage is floundering, they shot many takes until they found the weariness and exhaustion needed to capture the necessary tone.  This is a method film with method actors.

“Blue Valentine” is an epic life story that feels so much more profound than its intimacy would suggest.  It recognizes the truth of complex human relationships.  It knows we are flawed.  It accepts that what can often start off as a perfect union will sometimes crumble beneath the weight of our flaws.  I haven’t seen a movie this observant since “Lost in Translation”.  I haven’t seen a more beautifully realized motion picture in 2010.  I loved every single moment of it.  I loved the love.  I loved the heartbreak.  And I filled in the six year gap with all of my own stories, both happy and sad.