Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Mike Vogel, John Doman, Maryann
Plunkett, Faith Wladyka
" Blue Valentine" is an intimate, shattering portrait of a
disintegrating marriage.
On the far side of a once-passionate romance, Cindy (Michelle Williams) and
Dean (Ryan Gosling) are married with a young daughter. Hoping to save their
marriage, they steal away to a theme hotel. We then encounter them years
earlier, when they met and fell in love-full of life and hope.
Moving fluidly between these two time periods, Blue Valentine unfolds like a
cinematic duet whose refrain asks, where did their love go? Framing the film as
a mystery whose answer lies scattered in time (and in character), filmmaker
Derek Cianfrance constructs an elegant set of dualities: past and present,
youth and adulthood, vitality and entropy. The rigor of his process is visible
throughout the film. Eliminating artificial devices, he has only the truth of
the characters to work with. Because Gosling and Williams bring amazing
intensity and emotional honesty to their roles, the experience of connecting to
these two souls becomes truly moving.
Blue Valentine trailer courtesy The Weinstein Company.
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