BLUE VALENTINE review

Featured Critic; St. Louis, MO
BLUE VALENTINE review
Well before most anyone had actually seen "Blue Valentine", the story was all about how the film had been dealt an NC-17 rating by the MPAA. That hoopla was followed with even more hoopla when the NC-17 was overturned prior to release, and replaced with a more sensible R rating. For a small budgeted, challenging, performance-driven picture, "Blue Valentine" was spilling some considerable ink. But the real story is not nearly so quaint, so scandalous. The focus should be on the quality of the film itself, and in this case, the film being a dramatic showcase and delicate rarity of cinema, the story doesn't stop there.
To be clear, "Blue Valentine" is not "a good time at the movies". It is challenging, appropriately rough, and brutally honest. Director and co-writer Derek Cianfrance has crafted a film of full-on relationship angst, with just enough visual flair to be interesting, but not intrusive. You know how every Godard film the early sixties has a half-hour long scene of a troubled couple secluded in an apartment, stewing in their confused blend of contempt and sexual tensions? Imagine a feature length version of that, but set in modern day urban blue collar America.

That may sound far more torturous than it actually is - intercut among the strife are flashbacks of how the couple met, fell in love, ended up married, et cetera. Among these scenes are some pretty compelling moments, including what may be the most genuinely charming scene of two people realizing their romantic spark that I've seen in any movie in quite a while. Of course, it is the effectiveness of these lovey-dovey scenes that makes the couple's current-day deterioration all the more tragic. It's understandable that wallowing in the depressing remnants of a formerly glowing love would not appeal to some film goers. Fair enough. But then again, it is their loss.

Who'd have thought that of the "Dawson's Creek" cast, Michelle Williams would be the one to emerge with the most respectable career? Sure, Katie Holmes may've bagged Tom Cruise at the alter, and Joshua Jackson has landed on his feet as part of TV's "Fringe", but it's Williams who has shown artistic fearlessness again and again on the big screen. Perhaps more so than any other young actress in Hollywood, Williams, since her Oscar nominated turn in 2005's "Brokeback Mountain", has seemingly opted to appear ONLY in challenging films ("Wendy and Lucy", "Shutter Island", the list goes on...).

Likewise, almost the same could be said for Ryan Gosling, who's leap from 1989's celebrity-manufacturing "The All-New Mickey Mouse Club" to the rawness of "Blue Valentine" could arguably said to be of an even greater extreme. Gosling, as the well-intentioned but under-performing husband, is all easy-going on the outside, all slow burn on the inside. It's not often that his resentfulness towards his wife emerges, but when it does - look out. Rarely have we seen more inner-boiling, accusatory tension than between these two. And like real people, words and actions all too often fail them. When things come to a head, it is either in an illogical frenzy of anger, or perhaps even worse, a void-like silent treatment.

If there's a notable misstep in the film, it's that Cianfrance may be throwing too much sympathy to Ryan Gosling's character - although that assessment could be colored by the fact that I'm also a married man and father, and I've only seen the film once. But in that one screening, Gosling, with his skuzzy thinning hair and good intentions, felt ever so slightly like the more relatable of the pair. He cares for an old man, he's a cut-up with a ukulele, and he even gets beat up for his love. We like him for these things. That's unfortunately and perhaps unfairly more than can be said for Williams' character.

Midway through the film, when he convinces her to accompany him to a cheesy "sex motel" (a cornball space ship theme room, no less) in an unspoken last-ditch effort to mend their relationship, the film earns it's R rating. The sex that is depicted is raw, to be sure, but certainly not beyond the typical scope of the R rating. As Harvey Weinstein himself pointed out when battling the MPAA over the rating, the sex in the R rated "Monster's Ball" is considerably more graphic. ("Monster's Ball" is a good comparison to "Blue Valentine" in other ways as well.) Never titillating, this prolonged sequence is one big intimate encounter gone wrong. If there is a single 1960's Godard-ian portion of the film, this is most certainly it. The space ship never takes off, to say the least. Fortunately for viewers, though, the film, on the whole, most certainly does - even if it's not realized it until after it's all over.

- Jim Tudor
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