Blue Valentine (Derek Cianfrance)
As near accurate a portrait of the perfect love affair and its literal death are
rendered here explicitly and so utterly, that it's jaw-dropping closing moments
will floor even those hardest of hearts [I can imagine the disappointment of the
archetypal couple, hoping for a romantic diversion to affirm their own
burgeoning amore: she persuading him that it's not a sentimental chick-flic,
while secretly assuming it is and he, all harrumphing scepticism, ending up
being the first one dribbling tears and snot into his half-empty pop-corn bag
when he realises they're probably doomed].
The chemistry between Ryan
Gosling and Michelle Williams is deeply involving. They're total opposites.
She's very internal, reserved - a little too inscrutable [to the point that some
will empathise less with her] but her restraint does what it's supposed to -
unwittingly pulls us in. Williams is exquisite with restraint [as just one single heart-stopping shot in Brokeback Mountain will testify]. He's visibly
emotional, always (self)analytical, his heart not just on his sleeve but worn
proudly like some shiny enamel badge - all gamboling immaturity that drags us
along for the ride. If it was anyone but Gosling we'd be gagging.
With her quiet
intensity & seriousness and his openness & sentimental nature, in some
ways it's quite a gender role-reversal for a love story. But this
chalk and cheese characterisation is also an early alarm-bell of the cracks to come
and not only do they ignore it but so do we - who in life hasn't ignored those
warning signs while skipping along the wishful-thinking path? Hopeless romantics will wax lyrical about the attraction of
opposites, that spark of instant amore, the clash that is only a hurdle on the
path to 'true' love. But that's the point of opposites - they have a tendency to
end up being exactly that. That's the real tragedy here. The real tragedy of
love.
It's the first Great film of 2011. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll
want to fall in love. And then you'll wanna run screaming the other way.
And
then run back again of course!
originally published on Flixter February 2011
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