Blue Valentine (2010)

"...driven by dialogue and fueled by performances.  James Berardinelli, Reelviews
"...a small but shattering film...  Kyle Smith, New York Post
"...it stings so exquisitely.  Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
"This wrenching story of a marriage that rides a roller coaster for six tumultuous years is not to be missed.  Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Editor's Note A relationship is charted from its promising beginning to its sad collapse in this independent drama from Derek Cianfrance. Dean (Ryan Gosling) meets Cindy (Michelle Williams) when they're in their late teens; he's working for a moving company, she's a college student visiting her elderly grandmother at a home for the elderly. Cindy is dating Bobby (Mike Vogel), her boyfriend from high school, but as she gets to know Dean better, a mutual attraction grows between them. Years later, Dean and Cindy are married and have a daughter, Frankie (Faith Wladyka), but they're clearly not as happy as they once were; Dean loves his daughter but feels distant from his wife, they have to look after an elderly relative (John Doman), and when Cindy bumps into Bobby while running errands, it's clear he still holds a grudge against her. Dean and Cindy go away for a weekend together at a hotel, but it doesn't take long for them to realize that the magic isn't coming back. BLUE VALENTINE received its world premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

	Michelle Williams
	Ryan Gosling
	Mike Vogel
	Faith Wladyka
	John Doman
	Derek Cianfrance - Screenwriter
	Cami Delavigne - Screenwriter
	Joey Curtis - Screenwriter
	Derek Cianfrance - Director

Box Office
3 stars out of 5 -- "Like a Cassavetes movie, BLUE VALENTINE doesn't so much present a plot as riff inventively around an emotional predicament." 01/28/2010

Entertainment Weekly
"[A] lushly heart-wrenching and beautifully told tale....There are real demons in BLUE VALENTINE..." 02/12/2010

Film Comment
"[The film] alternates between scenes of the couple's glorious beginnings and bitter end, while employing a visual style that corresponds to the mood..." 11/01/2010

Rolling Stone
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "[N]ot to be missed. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams give two of the most explosive and emotionally naked performances you will see anywhere." 12/29/2010

USA Today
Included in USA Today's "10 Best Films Of 2010" -- "A heartbreaking work of staggering poignancy..." 12/31/2010

USA Today
4 stars out of 4 -- "Gosling and Williams have the most palpable chemistry of any screen couple this year, never striking a false note in this achingly tender tale of a love that implodes before our eyes." 12/29/2010

Los Angeles Times
"[The film gives] Gosling and Williams both the motive and the means to create something extraordinary, a valentine that actually says something true about being in love." 12/29/2010

Wall Street Journal
"The heartbreaking brilliance of this film, which the director wrote with Joey Curtis and Cami Delavigne, lies in its contradictions." 12/24/2010

A.V. Club
"BLUE VALENTINE's fearless candor and extreme emotional intensity should be a source of pride for everyone involved in this remarkable, utterly wrenching film." -- Grade: A 12/28/2010

New York Times
"Ms. Williams is, as ever, heartbreakingly precise in every scene..." 12/28/2010

Chicago Sun-Times
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "Derek Cianfrance, the film's writer and director, observes with great exactitude the birth and decay of a relationship. The film is alive in its details." 01/05/2010

Hollywood Reporter
"[T]he performances are fleshed out and telling. Gosling layers his character's charm with an eruptive and credible anger." 12/25/2010

Washington Post
3 stars out of 4 -- "The results can be almost unbearably harrowing but also deeply cathartic, as viewers create their own meanings within Dean and Cindy's singular downward spiral." 01/07/2011

Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "You won't see a more honest movie in 2011 -- and that's a promise." 01/07/2010

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "You might feel like averting your gaze at times, but don't -- performances this penetrating are a sight to see." 12/31/2010

Sight and Sound
"[T]he film is firstly an actor's piece -- a two-hander between Williams and Gosling, who both deliver truthful, committed performances, explored through improvised dialogue and action." 02/01/2011

USA Today 10 of 10
Gosling and Williams have the most palpable chemistry of any screen couple this year, never striking a false note in this achingly tender tale of a love that implodes before our eyes...When Dean says to Cindy, "Let's be a family," Williams' eyes convey a complicated expression that is at once terrified, hopeful and relieved. Barely 30, these are consummate actors giving masterful performances....Director Derek Cianfrance brilliantly charts the trajectory of their relationship by cross-cutting over a half-dozen years, chronicling intimate details, prosaic moments and devastating epiphanies...Cianfrance shoots with a naturalism that intensifies the story's authenticity, blending blurry images and sharp details. As each scene juxtaposes or blends with the one before, a simple story reveals its complexity...The screenplay is almost like a short story. Symbolism appears in song lyrics, hotel names and incidental visuals...Time shifts are accomplished by modifying the characters' appearances...The heart of this beautifully mesmerizing film comes down to that simple entreaty. Love is all about chance. - Claudia Puig