Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Love? Pah!

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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