A married couple's relationship is seen in flashback. WithMichelle Williams,Ryan Gosling. Director:Derek Cianfrance(1:52). R: Sexuality, nudity, language. At the Angelika; at Lincoln Plaza starting Friday.
Halfway into"Blue Valentine,"a work so beautifully acted and emotionally honest it is my choice for best movie of the year, there's an amazing flashback scene you hope never ends.
In it, Cindy (Michelle Williams), a student at a community medical college, is on a date with Dean (Ryan Gosling), a blue-collar guy who has just moved toBrooklynfromFlorida.
They ask each other if they have any talents. She can sing every President's name, in order; he can play the ukelele. Then, she dances as he strums and croons off-key— and in a dimly lit doorway of a formalwear shop in the middle of the night, they laugh and goof and fall in love.
But it does end— beginnings have to — and we're back to where this tough-minded yet melancholy film began: in the present, where Cindy and Dean are almost a decade into their marriage. Everyday stresses have worn them down. They're raising a 6-year-old daughter. Cindy is working all the time and frazzled. Deanis dedicated but burnt out from trying to keep them together.
These moments— some of which take place in a blue-tinted motel room they've rented to get away from things — are heavy with the recognition that something's over.
Director Derek Cianfrance, who crafted the film over a 12-year period with co-writersJoey CurtisandCami Delavigne, understands the rhythms of life, of arguments and affection and reconciliation. As we see Cindy and Dean before they meet and during their courtship, we like who they might become, which makes what they are heartbreaking.
Comparable to the films ofJohn Cassavetes— except Cianfrance adds an ethereal musical score by a Brooklyn band called Grizzly Bear —"Blue Valentine"could be seen as the perfect antidote to Hollywood's usual empty-souled, assembly-line romances. But that puts this tender, intense, perceptive film in company that doesn't deserve it.
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