Love is a blessed thing. It slowly builds through meetings of chance and determination as we get to know one another through precious activities that strengthen a blooming connection. Hollywood understands this aspect of love. Granted, most of it is done through montages and pop songs, but they understand the construction of a relationship at a surface level. But, what most films regarding love usually get wrong is the deconstruction of a relationship. Such a horrible feeling is often built on contrivances and a plot point that finds one of the partners getting caught behaving in a way that is unscrupulous. This is most prominent in romantic comedies where one of the partners kiss or appear to be romanticizing a person of influence from their past while their current partner looks on from a distance. It’s a shame that most films fail to realize that love is something that can dissipate with no reason, or in the very least, gradually deform through years as attractive human qualities become annoyances.
If there was ever a film that painstakingly captures the downfall of a relationship and its birth, it would be Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine. Not since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has a film so adequately captured the intimacy of a relationship’s arc. Where Eternal Sunshine... was invested in a world with memory erasure, the two lovers found in Blue Valentine aren’t afforded the opportunity to erase the pleasure and pain they’ve caused one another. Instead, they’re firmly grounded into an exciting and dreadful reality. The film opens up on Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams), a struggling married couple whose expectations have gone dry. Things feel awkward between the two as they hold onto their marriage as a means to protect their five year old daughter. It’s through their interactions with their child that we can see a strained relationship. Dean, with a teenager’s mentality, is forever indebted to his daughter and her enjoyment, which often causes Cindy to appear as a villain when she attempts disciplinary action. Aside from Dean’s childlike enthusiasm, his career is in a state of arrested development as he settles for a minor job as a painter. On the other end of the spectrum, Cindy is constantly pushing herself to achieve a higher level in her nursing career. Noticing a growing distance between him and Cindy, Dean convinces his wife to spend a night with him at a cheesy, love themed hotel in the hopes they can rekindle the love they once had.
Once this strand of the narrative is established, the film rushes back in time to the moment where Dean and Cindy fell for one another. We move back and forth as the discovery of love between our two protagonists is juxtaposed against the faint pulse of their fading love. Although we have no real indication as to why Dean and Cindy are falling apart, Gosling and Williams do enough to fill in the middle act of their struggling relationship with quirks that give us hints. Such hints appear as the couple awkwardly relive their more loving moments with a barrage of booze and a space themed hotel room. Gosling and Williams are terrific as they match each other’s disappointments note for note as their connection crumbles at break neck speed over the course of a few hours. Matching the depressing dread that emanates from the couple is the unbelievably lively and romantic beginning for the two. Under the direction of Cianfrance and the light structure of the screenplay, Gosling and Williams are able to create a moving and endearing relationship that makes their marriage’s demise all the more heartbreaking. In what can only be seen as a miracle of film, Williams and Gosling, who were instructed for much of the film to improvise, spontaneously create an assortment of scenes that charmingly dictates a budding romance. None of which is better demonstrated in a scene where Gosling plays a Ukulele in front of a wedding shop while Williams gleefully tap dances. This is honestly one of my favorite scenes from a film this year.
It’s a pitch perfect scene that further grows on the viewer as we shuffle back and forth between gestating love and a dissolving marriage. Cianfrance’s narrative flips allow us to not only become more invested in the heartbreak, but also allows us to see both Dean and Cindy as human beings with faults. Cianfrance’s ability to balance the angst between the two leads allows for the audience to be in support of both characters. Instead of hating them, we feel horrible that their run at love is ending. Had either character been shallow or any less redeeming, we’d surely be appreciative that they were moving on to better pastures. This notion combined with Gosling and Williams’ performances makes the film feel alive. It’s not a film that is merely a silhouette of love and intimacy. As a matter of fact, it’s the flesh and bone of every love story that this world has most likely seen. Sure, romantic comedies or typical Hollywood formulations may be more appealing due to their positive tendencies, but few films capture the potential blessing and destruction of love much like Blue Valentine.
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