Friday, January 7, 2011
Blue Valentine
![]() The film intertwines the current and past relationship between Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams). When Dean first meets Cindy, he is charismatic and persistent, chasing after Cindy. It is sweet and romantic. They passionately fall in love. After they get married, the magnet disappears. Dean feels content to be with Cindy and their daughter, but Cindy expects Dean to have bigger goal in life and feels suffocated by the marriage life. It is devastating and heartbroken. The marriage is falling apart. This is definitely not a pleasant, rather poignant, film to watch. If you can slice the movie into pieces and only watch the part how Dean and Cindy fall in love, that would be a funny and charming romantic comedy and a entirely different film. Instead, the harsh reality that the love between Dean and Cindy is fading away always emerges and gets into the middle of their earlier courtship. Like in real life, you wish the problem goes away, but it keeps coming back. However, regardless what stage their relationship resides, the emotion is always raw and honest, touching and absorbing. As if you are watching two close friends' ups and downs, but you are unable to offer any comfort or to take a side. Moreover, you care and feel for them. They are not living an easy life, but also not out of ordinary. "Blue Valentine" opens on Friday, January 7, 2011 at Bay Area theaters.
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