Blue Valentine...absolute perfection.

Yes.

I saw it at a film festival, and I had seen a few films previously that day with this girl I met there. She didn't particularly like Blue Valentine, and that was a deal breaker for me.
 
Didn't care for it. Good acting, but nothing that amazing or groundbreaking. Wouldn't reccomend it.
 
Thanks Adam, it is getting harder and harder to find a movie worth watching on the big screen. It was depressingly beautiful.
 
I thought the performances were great, some really great moments between Gosling and Michelle. That said, I thought the weakest part of the film was the structure. Great performances but at times they felt like captured moments and less like a build of a film. Very documentary like which was it's strength but it also inherited some of the structure weaknesses that documentary suffers from as well.

That ending was a pretty powerful image and moment.
 
I thought the structure was one of the strongest aspects. Seeing early on what their relationship would turn into makes everything in the past so much more tragic and depressing.
 
The structure was pretty basic, but what is missing is that middle point where we see that change from hope to despair in the relationship. We don't have that moment in the film. The performances are fantastic and it is really moving on a first view, but when you look at it closer it is missing pieces.
 
Fair enough, although I didn't think it was necessary to see what happened in the middle. I'm going to spoil the hell out of the movie below:







I don't think the middle years were really important. Take for example where they are at the end of the past part of the narrative: after Dean is assaulted by Cindy's obsessive wrestler ex, caused in part by her ignoring him and quickly moving on to someone else, he takes her to planned parenthood to get an abortion, where we find out how many partners she has been with. She's uncomfortable with the procedure and backs out, and eventually marries Dean, who knows the child isn't his, and almost jumped off of a bridge to find out Cindy's secret. Both things are big red flags: Dean is somewhat unstable, and romantic to the point of ignoring reality, and Cindy is not really the commitment type, so to speak, with the volume of partners she's had, not to mention the way we see her handle an ex. She's cold and passive-aggressive. Both of their characters flaws are on blast in the future. It would seem that they entered their marriage on pretty fragile ground, barely knowing each other, with red flags raised high. We didn't really need to see what happened in the middle.





End spoilers.
 
I think it would have been interesting to see the middle.

<<SPOILERS AHEAD STOP READING>>

I thought Michelle was great, but the tough part about her role is that her character has changed and can no longer stand that Dean is the same guy she married and has no ambition. By not showing that change she comes off as callous, though Michelle was so good that she outplays the weaknesses and clunkyness of the plot and script.

I didn't see Cindy as having an issue with commitment, I think she has just changed as a person. She wants more, whereas Dean is perfectly happy playing Dad and being married. He wants nothing more than to paint houses, drink at 9am, and have more kids. Seeing that slow drift would have been a really interesting evolution to show onscreen, because without that we see their relationship in these big broad strokes that in some ways aren't that nuanced. At the end every argument is big, and at the beginning everything is romantic and perfect, but in the middle the cracks and fissures appear.

I wanted more cracks and fissures. That is really interesting ground to explore and wish the film had gone there. I don't think they quite knew how to go there, but it's ok, because what they did show was so raw and honest in execution that I forgive those missing elements.
 
but what is missing is that middle point where we see that change from hope to despair in the relationship. We don't have that moment in the film.
Click to expand...
I wanted more cracks and fissures. That is really interesting ground to explore and wish the film had gone there. I don't think they quite knew how to go there, but it's ok,
Click to expand...

At first I thought the same, then it occurred to me that middle point is self-explanatory and may not be that interesting after all. Many relationships end up in wreckage due to simplest of things; 'time' erodes everything.

By the way check out this interview with the director; form versus content; digital versus cinema: (Red versus Super 16):

http://cinedork.com/2011/01/18/interview-blue-valentine-writerdirector-derek-cianfrance/
 
*spoilers*


I think a big piece of the unseen middle of their relationship lies in their sex life. When they are drunk at the hotel and having sex, Williams asks Gosling to be more aggressive, to which he replies, "I don't want to do it like that." We see in the flashbacks that Gosling is very loving and tender, especially compared to the wrestler ex-boyfriend. Williams saw her ex earlier that day, so she's likely thinking about him (or at least his style of sex) when she's with Gosling. She's clinching her fists in frustration from the very beginning of their intimacy. The film deals with sex a lot more than it does with Gosling's lack of ambition, so that leads me to believe the slow separation is primarily sex-based.

Regarding the structure, it worked for me. The flashing back and forth between "good" and "bad" was like falling in love and then being smacked in the face. My emotions just about matched the characters' throughout the film, so those ups and downs were really messing with my head.

The lack of "middle" was part of what made the film so good (IMO). For one, it kept it interesting while watching the film, because it was that big unanswered question. It also creates a more poignant theme, which was kind of that the middle doesn't matter because all relationships are headed the same way. I'm not saying I agree with the theme, but that's the message I took away.
 
I'm simultaneously disappointed that Ryan Gosling didn't get an oscar nomination for this film, but happy that Michelle Williams did. Both are two of my favorite actors working today. But oh well, the awards don't mean much at the end of the day.
 
I'm glad she got the nod, I thought she was amazing. He was no slouch either, but she made it look pretty effortless.

It was a pretty good contrast between them, because at times it was like he was begging for attention and she pulls that back by being smaller and forcing you to listen. I think Natalie Portman will win it for black swan, but I think her performance was better in this.
 
I missed the middle. I felt it needed it. Both were great in their roles. But, I wanted more from the story. Needed to see some of the unraveling or evolution. Incredible performances. Reminded me of watching Precious. Strong movie, but I did not enjoy watching it.
 
Finally got around to seeing this one. Really pretty amazing. It was near creepy watching the characters, though, because they reminded me so much of my best friend and his ex wife. They had a daughter together (and then got married) when they were 18/19. He painted houses fort a living (no highschool) and she became a nurse. He started staying out late with friends and drinking all the time after he blew out his knee in a softball game. He then stayed home watching the daughter while his wife worked to support the family and though I've never met in my life two people more in love than these two people in their "prime", it didn't matter. They were too stupid to figure out the life stuff.

I recommended the movie to my friend. I know he's totally gonna wig out when he watches it. The similarities are creepy.
 
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