At its conclusion, Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine leaves the viewer with mixed emotions. There’s an almost triumphant swelling of music played over a gorgeous end credits sequence — a seeming mismatch to the downbeat ending of the film. This clash of despair and joy is intentional, the culmination of two parallel stories. The emotions of the two inter-cut plots are completely different (one’s happy, the other sad), but they are equally overwhelming.
Blue Valentine follows Dean and Cindy (Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams) at two different points in their relationship, as they first fall in love and then years later after the marriage has turned miserable. Cianfrance’s structure works to avoid the pratfalls of many of the recent “gritty” or “kitchen sink realism” relationship indies, the common complaint about which is boiled down to, “Why are we supposed to care about these (seemingly) despicable characters arguing?” The plot contrivance of Blue Valentine works to show how much the couple has changed, and how the goofy chemistry they once shared has turned into unbearable tension.
This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2011.