Review of Blue Valentine (2010) by Johntibbitts — 04 Aug 2011

This is already in my top 10 - definitely one of my favorites. I absolutely love this movie. It's really beautiful to me in so many ways. The brilliant cinematography complimented the realism and truth in the acting.

Gosling and Williams have such passionate, beautiful, and tragic chemistry and it really flows through the entire movie. The plot of intertwining past and present is very smart and, despite what one might think, does not confuse the audience - it helps to give meaning and emotional value to events throughout the film.

The ending is my favorite part. With the audience knowing in their hearts that it's truly over between the two characters, they're still hanging on to that one shred of hope that they'll somehow work it out.

The mise-en-scène of the last few minutes of the film going into the credits is complimented with its perfect match of cinematography to convey a beautiful representation of the Americanism in the separation of Dean and Cindy.

The wonderful use of a telephoto lens to separate the planes of the characters and the scenery really makes the scene. When Dean is walking away, the fireworks present a great symbolism of America and how divorce is very American - a lens that was previously used in the film to bring these two characters together on the screen is now used to tear them apart on the screen.

In the final moment when Frankie runs to her dad but is sent back to her mom, Dean and Cindy are never on the same plane on the screen. When Dean is in focus, Cindy is blurred, and vice versa - this is just a really creative, subtle, yet brilliant way to show these two characters being separated after all they've been through.

I really grew to love and care for these characters. Blue Valentine made me smile, it made me laugh, it made me cry - it got inside my heart and tugged at its strings in almost every way possible. I give this 10 stars because I could not find a flaw in the film if I tried.