Blue Valentine at Sundance '10

Followers of my movie tastes will know that something in my brain gravitates towards films about the dissolution of relationships, the improbability of love.  So maybe when I say that Blue Valentine is absolutely brilliant, you should not take too much stock.  But here it is:  Blue Valentine is absolutely brilliant.  Why, you ask?  Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams (Dean and Cindy) are darling as a couple falling in and out of love.  Absolutely, horrifically believable.  The couple, who are raising a child together is at the end of the rope when we meet them.  Through flashbacks, we see them meet in Brooklyn, before they move to her home in suburban Pennsylvania.  We also see the meltdown, the moment that solidifies the end.  This meltdown happens, in all places, a futuristic room in a kitschy hotel with themed rooms.

I fell in love with every step of the relationship, every up and every down.  There were a few strange missteps -- there is an odd moment when Cindy is in a wheelchair as a "learning experience" (we're supposed to take it that she's doing a nursing school project...I guess) and the ending is a bit melodramatic.  There's a phenomenal dramatic moment in a doctor's office.  The scene in the Future Room was an emotionally debilitating mix of interpersonal and architectural artifice.  The two have such chemistry (and whatever the opposite of chemistry is).  And Faith Wladkya is phenomenal as their young daughter, Franky.

All of the specs are spot on.  The score is done by Grizzly Bear, who have turned a number of their songs into an instrumental score.  Derek Cianfrance has proven himself as a capable auteur.  From the first scene, in which he plays with rack focus as Franky searches for their lost dog.  Later on, he uses everything at his disposal, not least his actors to create impeccable and effective drama.

--bryce