David O'ConnellBlue Valentine
December 23rd 2010 00:16
Former documentary filmmaker Derek Cianfrance’s fictional debut, Blue Valentine, is home to two of the finest performances of the year from Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. Drawing on their own fractured domestic lives, he and co-writer Cami Delavigne have constructed a heartbreaking, slowly evolving portrait of marital dissolution.
The film subtly shifts between two time frames; slowly unwinding are the tentative moments before and after Dean (Gosling) and Cindy (Williams) first meet, filled with promise and a sense of destiny. Then there’s the disquieting solemnity of their present day six years down the track, saddled with a daughter but seemingly going nowhere. Dean, once a removalist but now working as a painter, seems unduly devoted to alcohol and starved of ambition, whilst Cindy, now a nurse after struggling through university, feels ensnared by the inertness of their desperate rural lives.
The contrast is a deeply affecting one, especially considering the poignant recreation of their courtship which encompasses moments so real they can hardly be attributed to acting. Both Gosling and Williams shine as the baffled but blissful young couple, surging ahead on instinctive emotional reactions to one another. An impromptu song and dance number as they trawl the nighttime streets, lost in one another’s company for the first time, is worth its weight in gold.
From her sudsy beginnings on TV, Williams is stealthily accruing some enviable credentials, making her mark as a talented performer willing to make bold creative choices that go against the grain of expectation. With brave contributions to films like Kelly's Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy (2008) and Meek’s Cutoff (2010), Blue Valentine solidifies her standing with another raw and devastatingly honest portrayal. For Gosling this is another impressive step forward, enhancing his own reputation as an intense, uninhibited performer whose naturalism is essayed with as much conviction as any other young actor today.
Heartbreakingly authentic, Blue Valentine is not an easy film to watch or digest but it’s a remarkable piece of cinema, shot mostly in Pennsylvania over 30 days and entirely with handheld cameras. After many trials and tribulations over the past 11 years, Cianfrance has finally seen his personal project reach fruition.
The overlapping of strands makes for stark contrasts in tone and it’s to the director's credit that the low-key, naturalistic beat is maintained. Only toward the end is there a scene - acting as a culmination of the dissolving connection between Dean and Cindy - that leans toward overstatement; here, a display of alcoholic bleating, and eventually violence, holds sway over rationalisation, leading to the couple’s defining moment of darkest realisation.
There’s a pessimism here that undercuts standard Hollywood notions of fissures reduced to paper-cuts by idealistically adhered-to formulas. There are no simple solutions on display in Blue Valentine (2010) which, though marketed as a love story, is anything but. This is painstakingly grafted adult fare, evoking everyday life with a cinematic purist’s eye. Here’s hoping the impressive Cianfrance is not a flash in the pan and can follow this startling debut with something half as good.
Blue Valentine opens in Australian cinemas on December 26.
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Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
I am midst writing a review of this for a magazine, and although I agree it is a terrific debut for Cianfrance, I was a little nonplussed by the constant to-ing and fro-ing of the time line, I found it momentarily confusing and disengaging.
However, in general, the film is a refreshing presentation, the leads giving fabulous performances.
cheers
fog
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
I didn't have a problem at all with the two time strands and thought it offered exactly the kind of painful contrast he was aiming for. Pretty gut-wrenching stuff no matter how you look at it.
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
Criticism aside, it remains a powerful piece drama.
cheers
fog