Blue Valentine
Review
by Anthony Morris
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Blue Valentine
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A little girl wanders around a paddock, looking for something.
Eventually she returns to a house and wakes her father Dean (Ryan
Gosling). He plays with her – he's clearly a doting father – then her
no nonsense mother Cynthia (Michelle Williams) turns up and cracks the
whip. It's hardly usual for parents to have different but
complimentary styles – one's the fun parent, the other gets things done
– but here it's a sign of a much deeper problem : their relationship is
falling apart. Blue Valentine
doesn't really try to go into why things have gone sour : through a
string of flashbacks we see how these two met and how they ended up in
a relationship that, with a bit more thought, they might not have
committed to so deeply, but the collapse of things takes place over
little more than 24 hours. Basically, this is a film about
two people (well, mostly one) who have simply had enough of the way
things are, and lack the desire or energy to keep trying to change
things. So, uh, probably not a date movie then. Both Gosling and Williams are excellent here, but the film as a whole is fairly cold and clinical. Blue Valentine
looks at the end of a relationship with a dispassionate eye, which
means it's difficult to really feel much of anything for either
party. They both clearly love their daughter – she’s
obviously been the thing keeping them together for a while now – but
while the flashbacks show why they fell for each other in the past, the
people they are today just aren’t all that lovable. It’s a
sad story, but it’s an abstract kind of sadness, one you register with
your head rather than feel with your heart. Which might be for the best
: if this was a film that made you feel the pain of a dying
relationship, it’s hard to imagine too many people actually wanting to
go see it. 3.5 out
of 5
Blue Valentine
Australian release: 26th December,
2010
Official
Site: Blue Valentine
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Mike Vogel, John Doman, Faith
Wladyka
Director: Derek Cianfrance
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