Blue Valentine

Wow. A thoroughly tumultuous couple of hours.

Tearing apart at the seams the usual boy-meets-girl plot this brutal portrayal of how love fades and the struggle couples face to keep a marriage alive, Blue Valentine has left me without hope to find "the One". Interspersed with "flashbacks", Cianfrance cleverly kept the ending a mystery keeping alive my unflinching faith in love and the hope that Dean and Cindy would patch things up right until the credits rolled. To my absolute horror I didn't get the tearful, fairytale ending I was yearning for from films like the Notebook which, despite being one of my all-time favourites, I guess you see all too often. However this is exactly what sets Blue Valentine apart and why it's such a worthwhile watch.

With only a simple backing score and no lyrical music, the platform was laid bare and the acting had nowhere to hide. And nor did it. Without any shadow of a doubt Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling should be in the running for some sort of recognition for their intensely raw performances as a couple in a battle with love. Without sensationalising it at all at times it did transcend acting and it genuinely felt like being a fly-on-the wall of a real couple. Towards the end Gosling opens himself up as Dean in a way men are usually never shown on the silver-screen. The rawness of every conflict they have is so intense it's one of those films where after a 30 second period you realise you've been holding your breath.

Despite the increasingly depressing direction of the present scenes, the flashbacks are entertaining and gives the film a more youthful and playful balance but naturally Blue Valentine is all about the gritty, dirty side of a relationship. As a starry-eyed, impressionable, young and single man it doesn't exactly inspire me with confidence that a perfect romantic life awaits me but that is where the film delivers. Playing with the idea that many, like myself I admit, are often in love with the very idea of being in love and in throwing away the proverbial text-book you're taken on a turbulent ride and it is certainly a chastening experience.

Many years in the making I think Cianfrance can be immensely proud of making a love film the likes of which have never been seen before. The performances of Gosling and Williams cannot be overstated and their dedication to this indie project, including actually living together for months, is testament to them as professionals and serves to produce a film that perhaps you won't be rushing to watch again soon but is nevertheless an immensely piercing and profound take on love. It now seems to have been a good idea of mine to have watched it on Valentines Day...