Blue Valentine is a 2010 drama about the dissolution of a once happy couple that earned high praise for its realistic performances.
THE STORY: Following the nonlinear history of high school dropout Dean (Ryan Gosling) and pre-med student Cindy (Michelle Williams), the film tracks the couple over several years as they meet, fall in love, and then collapse. In the middle of it all is a little girl, Cindy’s daughter most likely from another man that Dean pledges to care for, even as it all starts to fall apart.
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writers: Derek Cianfrance, Joey Curtis
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, John Doman
THE RUNDOWN: An unconventional movie experience, writer/director Derek Cianfrance relies on an almost documentarian observation of these two people, their relationship one of the most authentic ever seen on film, which left a lot of people shaken by its realism. Gosling, who was just on the cusp of stardom, transforms himself as Dean, and with Williams, delivers a raw and deeply passionate performance that redefined his early career. Not a typical love story, Blue Valentine is painful and brutally honest, making it one of the best ever made in the genre.
This is an uncommonly realistic film, akin to the early works of David Gordon Green, the performances and direction simply wondrous.
It’s hard to find fault in this, though some may find it’s ambiguous end troubling.
THAT MOMENT: The movie sort of begins near the end as the couple, now years together, are struggling, trying to hide from their daughter Frankie (Faith Wladyka) the truth about their fading love. It’s not easy.
The story then flashbacks to Cindy’s previous relationship and the possibility of Frankie’s conception, and then a visit to the nursing home where Cindy’s grandmother is housed. It’s here where she first meets Dean, who is delivering furniture for a new tenant. He likes her immediately and passes her his card, but she never calls, until a month later when, after he talks with the grandmother again, meets Cindy on a city bus.
Armed with only a hoodie and a ukulele, he approaches and sits beside her where the two engage in an awkward conversation that establishes much about their differences but also their compatibility. Clearly, there’s a connection, even as she makes a joke about a child molester. It’s actually very funny.
They then end up walking a rural Pennsylvanian street at night, prodding and learning more about each other until eventually they stop in the bay opening of a gown and suit store. Here, after she regals him with a song about the US Presidents, he asks if she can dance. She takes off her coat and hints at some tap skills while he readies his ukulele, instructing her to stand in the door in front of the heart-shaped wreath.
Dean then begins to strum and tells her he can’t really sing, that he has to sing ‘goofy’ to make it work, and then does just that, chortling a charming, falsetto rendition of Allan Roberts and Doris Fisher‘s classic You Always Hurt The One You Love. It’s pure movie magic.
WHY IT MATTERS: The grand romantic gesture has become a plague on the modern romcom, where (typically) a guy trying to win a girl goes about doing some highly implausible and overtly public act of affection, which sure, can seem ridiculously romantic but ultimately unbelievable. It probably started innocently enough with Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) standing next to his car with that boombox over his head in the classic 1989 film Say Anything. But then it just got out of hand, from The Wedding Singer‘s airplane serenade (with the real Billy Idol) to Bill Hader and Amy Schumer‘s 2015 Trainwreck, which featured the New York Knicks City Dancers doing an elaborately choreographed routine to Billy Joel‘s Uptown Girl. And those are just a few.
That’s exactly why this small, intimate moment between Dean and Cindy strikes with such impact, the closeness and privacy of it all like nothing we’ve seen before. It’s like this alcove is a sanctuary where the two allow themselves to be free of whatever burdens them and reveal to each other in music and dance their own vulnerabilities, and as such, affection.
I really like how the scene starts, on the bus, as she enters and takes a seat, him already on board, tucked under the shadow of his hoodie. Cianfrance cuts to an exterior shot of the bus pulling away and above the small brick-face buildings beyond, we see a faint rainbow arching overhead, a visual metaphor of the fairytale fantasy of such a meet cute moment, the colors already draining away. It’s subtle but if you’re paying attention, revealing.
Either way, once we get to the storefront, things just kind of disappear into the ether as these two characters sink into their moment, this palpable sense of attraction and curiosity guiding their every move, each eager to be noticed by the other. Watch how natural and purposeful both Gosling and Williams move about this scene, the moment surely given to improv as they play to what comes organically rather than bound to something concrete. Indeed, Cainfrance told the actors not to reveal their character’s talents to each other until they did so on camera, lending the scene a special spontaneity as they both react to whatever the other is saying.
What’s so important about this genuinely romantic moment is how authentic it is. This is a rare break from the film’s usual heavy drama, and while it’s amusing and charming, it also further invests us in this romance, one that right here, is born out of simplicity, a man and a woman with a uncomplicated song and dance, bonding in ways that only can be explained by matters of the heart. We recognize the power of such a simple thing, marvel at how significant it is, and sit in wonder at its ability to move us so.
Blue Valentine is not always easy to watch, purposefully so, this relationship one so convincing in its commitment to each other, the chance it might fail almost devastating from the start. Led by two remarkable performances, it is a film of truly crushing effect, yet a small scene where a boy romances a girl in song is the film’s singularly best achievement. It’s a great movie moment.