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Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Mike Vogel, John Doman, Jen Jones, Faith Wladyka, Ben Shenkman, Maryann Plunkett
Once crazy about each other, Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) have now grown apart. Cindy is bored and disenchanted with her life while Dean languishes in the emotional emptyness of their sexless, routine life in rural Pennsylvania. As they muddle through their marriage, they hearken back to the golden days when life was filled with possibility and romance.
This terrific film by Director, Derek Cianfrance had it's debut at Sundance to more than favorable reviews and for good reason. You can call "Blue Valentine a bittersweet love story but to be honest it's mostly bitter in nature. The story of two people who were once deadly in love but for reasons I won't go into here they lose what they once had as time goes on. A sad film but you have to love it's honestly because as we all know some times love just doesn't last no matter how long you might try and keep it together. It's the honestly of the film that makes it so good but yet so hard to watch, the film pulls no punches and doesn't sugar-coat anything about the romance gone bad and for that Derek Cianfrance must be given a ton of credit for because to be honest it had to be a hard story to sell as far as mainstream goes. To make such an honest film you are going to need a couple leads that are going to deliver performances that are worthy of the story and Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams bring emotional and mature performances are match the story perfectly. The films is not all doom and gloom, the flashback scenes showing the couple in happier times are sweet and help in making the film just one sad moment after another. Williams was nominated for her performance while Gosling was over-looked but I see his day coming sooner rather than later when his name is called to accept the Oscar.
"Blue Valentine" is a realistic, hard-hitting film and pulls on the heart strings and leaves you thinking about it long after it's over. Easily one of the best films of the year and one I highly recommend picking up. Both the DVD and Blu-ray come with Special Features that include:
Cast and Crew Interviews
Making-Of Featurette
Director's Commentary
Deleted Scenes
You can order the DVD HERE and the Blu-ray HERE.
Released by The Weinstein Company and Anchor Bay Entertainment
***** out Of *****