RSS 2.0 FeedFebruary 2, 2011, Film
FILM REVIEW: Don't be my "Blue Valentine"
Two-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling burn up the screen with sadness and pain as their ill-fated marriage crumbles into dust in "Blue Valentine."
A little girl cries out desperately for her dog. A car whizzes by on a nearby lonely road. A train wails in the distance. It all punctuates the unhappy marriage that a young house painter and nurse find themselves in. It begins innocently enough when we see Dean (Ryan Gosling) as a doting father who loves to entertain his daughter, but we know there’s trouble from the moment his wife, Cindy (Michelle Williams) gives her oatmeal he thinks is uncooked.
It’s all quite subtle, however, it’s unmistakable how annoyed Cindy is with what she regards as Dean’s childish antics. Her eyes belie a deep sadness that is tinged with regret. Cindy’s pain is only increased when Dean angrily blames her for the death of the family dog. Previous fights between them have caused her to avoid all physical intimacy with Dean who’s frustrated by her distance.
Dean and Cindy’s relationship wasn’t always dysfunctional. We flash back to a few years earlier when Dean first met Cindy. She loved his childish antics then and was attracted to his carefree spirit. For Dean, she was “The One.” Someone he had known all his life even they just met. Then she gets pregnant. They get married. Everything is roses but something has happened since rings were exchanged and we meet them when it’s broken.
Blue Valentine is a tragic tale. One that’s all too real. It is two people who should have never got married in the first place but didn’t figure out they weren’t right for each other until it was a pregnancy and a band of gold too late. There is nothing pleasant about watching a couple disintegrate before your very eyes, but credit is owed to director Derek Cianfrance whose previous work has involved television documentaries and documentary short films.
Cianfrance, who also co-wrote the film, prevents Blue Valentine from devolving into an ugly, unwatchable shout-fest like The Break-Up starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. The pain is tangible and his characters have an everyday feel about them. They are persons we as viewers have possibly known or been familiar with in our own lives.
Gosling may have received a Golden Globe nod for his work but it’s a performance which lacks a certain “wow” factor. You can watch The Notebook and get the same thing. On the other hand, Williams, whose character is clearly the sympathetic one, is brilliant and deserves the Oscar nomination she recently received. She wears Cindy’s joy at the beginning of her relationship with Dean with the same clarity as she does the sadness, pain and ultimately serious resolve at the end of it.
On a letter grade scale from “A” being excellent to “F” for failing, Blue Valentine receives a B.
Blue Valentine is rated R and has a running time of 111 minutes.
Now showing through February 3 @
Glenwood Arts
9575 Metcalf, Overland Park, KS
Visit www.fineartsgroup.com or call 913-642-4404 for more information.
Also showing at
AMC Town Center 20
11701 Nall Avenue Leawood, KS
Visit http://www.amctheatres.com/TownCenter/ or call 1-888-AMC 4FUN for more information.
Indie Film Editor
Michael D. Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts in history at College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri followed by a Master of Arts in history at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Inspired by such critics as Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, Michael started reviewing films in 1992 for College of the Ozarks's student-run newspaper. After returning to the Kansas City area in 1994, he continued film reviewing by writing for the Cass County Democrat Missourian in Harrisonville.
In 2000 Michael joined Sun Publications in Overland Park, Kansas where he served as its film critic and Arts and Entertainment Editor. During his tenure there, he was also the film critic for the "Fine Arts Radio Hour" and "Celebrity Scoop" radio shows on KXTR. After leaving the Sun in late 2002, he became the A&E writer for the Olathe News in Olathe, Kansas. He also worked as a freelance writer for The Squire in Leawood, Showcase Publishing in Lake Ozark, Missouri and the Kansas City Star.
Michael is currently a member of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, a professional film critic organization established in 1966 by the late Dr. James Loutzenhiser.
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