Blue Valentine Movie Blurb by Shale January 14, 2011 I just saw this movie today and still processing it. When you have history as I have, there were a lot of scenes here that spoke to me - and they weren't all pleasurable. I really don't care for movies like this. I like escapism and this was too much like life. I only went to it because now and then I will take in an excellent, well made movie just for the experience - no matter how realistic and unpleasant. This movie was well received by critics and audiences. It follows the failing marriage of Dean (Ryan Gosling) a blue-collar, high school drop out, who is laid back and easy going and Cindy (Michelle Williams) a more serious and ambitious nurse. We see that they are mismatched, except for the six years they have been together with their daughter (Faith Wladyka). The scene then jumps to the past, where Dean has more hair and they both look so much younger. Dean & Cindy Happier Times That is how the movie works; a scene of the present strife of an out of love married couple, then a scene of those moments of overpowering new love that brot them together. All done in such a normal and realistic way that you sometimes feel you are part of their life. Whether the circumstances are the same or not, many of us have been thru that exhilarating new love and subsequent changes that see that love fade. I had read the background about how Screenwriter/Director, Derek Cianfrance got some of that realism. Like the bridge scene, in which he instructed Williams not to give the scenes secret to Gosling and told Gosling to keep at it until you get the secret. The scene on a New York bridge went on in impasse until Gosling climbs up on the guard rail and is about to be hanging over water when Williams to tell him what she was hiding. That scene was unrehearsed - it was real, like the scene in the trailer where Dean is on a first date with Cindy and he sings a song to which she dances. Again, Cianfrance had them just walk around while he filmed and instructed both to surprise each other. It was a spontaneous moment that made the movie. Also, both actors were put in an apartment to live together for a month to get them into characters who couldn't stand each other. BTW, there are a couple of very convincing sex scenes in this movie that almost got it an NC-17 rating but they argued it down to an R. It was a good movie - if you are in the mood for a little unpleasant reality.
