This movie was suggested to me by Hannah (readingfreak.tumblr.com)
For the record, to my knowledge, she does not have a thing for Ryan Gosling either.
In my recent experience with Ryan Gosling, I've come to the conclusion that Ryan Gosling is in fact a younger Nicholas Cage clone who had facial reconstruction surgery and somehow managed to have cat DNA integrated into his system.
At least, this is how his acting comes across. Not that that's a bad thing. Merely an observation.
But this movie is not about Gosling alone.
So, let's review.
Story/Dialogue: This story juxtaposes two events that coil around each other like a double helix. The beginning, where Dean meets Cindy and the end, where the love between Dean and Cindy is lost. When Cindy and Dean are just getting together, Cindy learns that she is with child with no thanks to a guy she was seeing previously. Dean takes responsibility and becomes a painter of houses. Cindy works as a nurse and together they have a life that Dean is desperately trying to hold onto and Cindy feels she's suffocating in.
The best thing about the dialogue is that even though there wasn't a lot of it, the lack of it conveyed more than a load of dialogue could ever do. Though, what dialogue there was wasn't overly profound.
The story says a lot about a realistic love and how passion can wane. I recall a post that showed this movie as one amongst a few movies that showed an excellent representation of love.
Cinematography: This movie's juxtaposition of two stories bleeding into each other is shown through the types of camera movement. As Dean and Cindy begin with their relationship, the handheld style and rich colouring shows the rose coloured glasses stage of a relationship. The one where everything is happy and upbeat. The other end of this story shows more steadycam and dolly shots, with a lot of colour bled out of them. This is to represent the routine and structure (however unsteady) that the relationship has developed. It also shows the fact that the love is gradually fading away.
A final note, but the last shot of the movie where Ryan Gosling is walking away while fireworks are going off reflects the intense emotions felt when breakups occur. Passionate people are explosive and when those people collide, it often reflects poorly in the aftermath.
Audio: I had some trouble with the audio and while I'm not sure if it was the copy of the movie I had or whether it was intended, it forced me to focus on the character's faces and watch how they communicate rather than the words they said. Ryan Gosling has a habit of repeating a lot of his lines and while it's not bad, you start to focus more on what he's doing rather than what he's saying, which I think is a good thing. Movies are visual, after all.
The tracks in this movie were so subtle that they were gone from my memory even as I heard them. "You and Me" by Penny and the Quarters was the most memorable track, but only because of the significance of it to the movie.
Overall: Blue Valentine was a movie that showed better than told. Had I not gone in knowing the premise of the movie, I would have been dissatisfied with the end result. Knowing what I do, though, made the movie an enjoyable watch.
I've been informed that Blue Valentine's director actually had Ryan and Michelle live together with the little girl so that their chemistry appeared genuine. Which it most certainly did.
A great, if sad movie. Cathartic, almost.
4 stars.
Thus ends this review.
If you had thoughts about the review or the movie itself and want to discuss it, I'd love to know what you think down in the comments.
Recommendations are always welcome!
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