Can We Take a Moment to Remember How Blue Valentine is Still Devastating?

Few spoilers in this post, but I imagine most of you should have seen it back in 2011. If you haven't, grab the tissues and come back later.

Did you know that the most fun thing you can do on a Sunday afternoon before you go to work is rewatch Blue Valentine and spend a good 20 minutes crying over it?

Didn't know that valuable information? Well I can 100% confirm that while rewatching Blue Valentine may not be the most happy experience, it is an experience nonetheless.

A little bit of context: I first watched Blue Valentine when it first came out on DVD in July 2011, when I was a tiny 15 year old enjoying the last days of illegally watching R16s. I have not been able to go back to it since. Until there came a Sunday when I thought: "I've got a couple of hours to kill, let's watch the most depressing film in my collection this side of Revolutionary Road."

Apparently I didn't really remember the magnitude of absolute earth-shattering devastation that this film brought to my world. Or I was watching it with different eyes when I was 15. But holy heck is this film depressing.

One thing that really took me by surprise this time around was the way Derek Cianfrance loves playing with his narratives. One of my favourite films from last year was his sophomore effort The Place Beyond the Pines. Here was a film that easily could have been split into three parts, yet he expanded his narrative beyond what he could have. He didn't only show the cause, but also showed the effect. I talk about this a lot more in my review of the film from last year, but to put it simply: I really admire Cianfrance's ambition. We're too often brushing simple narrative ambition under the rug for the more complex, confusing narratives drawing in a plethora of realms (however, that does make for some damn good cinema when it's done right).

Ambition, but Not the 'Gravity' Kind: Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond the Pines

The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) / US / Out on DVD now / Directed By Derek Cianfrance / Written by Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio and Darius Marder / Starring Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta, Dane DeHaan, Emory Cohen, Rose Byrne

A long while ago, when I was a young, precocious and naive girl filled with a fanciful imagination, I used to think up movies in my head. They'd end up getting far too complex and ambitious, and then I'd flag that possible masterpiece, and move on to the next creation. They weren't complex in the way that say, Inception is complex. They were complex in the way that they were essentially three or four movies in one, connected by the tiniest of threads.

When I sat down to watch Derek Cianfrance's sophomore effort The Place Beyond the Pines, I was prepared for this movie where Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper would face off for, you know, the entire movie. Alas, The Place Beyond the Pines instantly reminded me of the movies I used to work tirelessly on in my brain - and this is not at all a bad thing. It is the kind of film that is thorough in its complexity, sometimes to a fault. This is not the sort of film where Ryan Gosling plays the tattooed rebel and Bradley Cooper plays the cop trying to bring him down. It is about much, much more than that.

DVD - Blue Valentine

Note: I was going to do a review on the X-Men trilogy tonight, but I changed my mind after watching Blue Valentine last night. Seriously, I've been chomping at the bit to do this review all day.

When I was young, I was always under the impression that I'd grow up, get a really good job, fall in love, get married and have children. It was that simple. Those thoughts were often surrounded by beautiful colours, fountains of hearts and any other form of happiness. But as time has gone by, that dream is slowly becoming dimmer. I don't know whether it comes from the fact that I've realised just how much cynicism there is in the work, or the fact that my parents don't live together anymore...or maybe it's just that I watch too many movies about marriages. I think most of those movies do sugarcoat married life a bit, though. However, watching Blue Valentine completely made my dream the darkest it has ever been. Yes, the film was a little too close to home, which made it all the more depressing, but seriously? I never want to fall in love now, for the fear of falling out of love when it's really just too late.

The tagline for Blue Valentine was simply "A Love Story". To a degree, that is true. Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) were once in love, which led them to get married and have a gorgeous daughter, Frankie (Faith Wladyka). Their love story would have been good on it's own, and would have made for a just about perfect chick flick of some sort. However, woven into their happy love story is a weekend in the distant future which visits Dean and Cindy, now just your average married couple, struggling to stay together. Dean hasn't changed much, but Cindy appears to be worn out - which is probably the result of Dean's slight immaturity and trying to juggle work and being a mother at the same time. So really, this film is about what happens after all of the romance and fireworks.

If this film was in chronological order, then it probably wouldn't have hit as hard. Having the two time periods cutting into each other is just like watching positivity fight negativity, with the latter always ending up on top. That's not to say that this movie is always depressing. There are some genuinely sweet moments, like the tap-dancing/ukelele scene between Dean and Cindy in their early days. Even during the later days, it's kinda funny seeing the pair in that slightly strange 'futuristic' hotel room, trying to reignite their relationship. There's a slight goofiness in what Derek Cianfrance is trying to achieve - it may not be fully realised, but you can see this coy attempt at a cheesy rom-com subtly coming through. But you've really got to hand it to Cianfrance, because when most people make a movie that they want to hit the audience really hard with, they decide to make it the most depressing experience ever. With it's slight sense of humour, it's a lot easier to believe Blue Valentine and it becomes more realistic. Sometimes directors just want you to feel really miserable, but Cianfrance wants you to feel for these miserable people.

The cross-cutting technique is used to full effect, making this ingeniously depressing. That may be a strange claim to make, but trust me...if the final sequence had been left without it, I probably wouldn't have bawled my eyes out for the rest of the night. The way Cianfrance mixes the scenes, so they each contradict each other, is pure genius. As I said, this film is like watching what happens after all of the romance and fireworks. You just get a better idea of the 'before' and 'after', which definitely does make it all the more depressing. Ingeniously depressing, to put it correctly...you can quote me in the future.

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are also ingeniously depressing. They simply are Dean and Cindy. Is it possible to get better young actors than these two? How Gosling got ignored by the Academy for his performance here is beyond me. He's the picture of masculinity which meets naivety and immaturity. He's a romantic who was unfortunately very easy to get tired of. Gosling just gave it everything he had, and this confirms for me that he might just be one of the best young actors working today. Michelle Williams, who was recognised by the Academy for her work, is every inch a winner with her performance. She plays a damaged character so well, and even manages to get a bit of sympathy even though her character is probably the evil force driving her relationship apart. Together, you forget that they are acting. They are so great together that you feel every twang of pain when an insult is hurled, every throb of happiness which comes with a compliment, and you feel like your world has fallen apart at the end, thanks to Gosling and Williams.

Yes, Blue Valentine is extremely hard to watch. But I feel as if a movie hasn't fully rewarded me if I don't feel completely involved with the characters, to the point that I am probably in tears at the end. Let's just say, this movie was definitely rewarding. The credits were made with colourful fireworks, which pretty much summed up my happiness with this movie. I'm happy for the way it turned out, and I'm happy about how much I liked it. I don't want to overrate it, but this is definitely the best movie I have seen this year, so far.

THE VERDICT: Derek Cianfrance has created a movie which is raw and realistic, moving and depressing. The performance from Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are simply perfect, adding more fuel to the fire.

What I hoped for:

What I got: