Review: Blue Valentine

Hilarious romantic comedy starring Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Aniston. No that’s a lie – and anything starring Aniston and Kutcher is unlikely to be described as hilarious. This is a powerful drama from director, Derek Cianfrance starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. The film follows a couple through several stages of their life and relationship, over several time periods. We see the couple and their lives before the meet each other, the height of their passion and the eventual deterioration of the relationship.

The characters are well crafted and stars Gosling and Williams show their full acting range. Through Gosling’s character Dean we see the fun loving father, loved-up youth and destructive husband. Williams shows us the ambitious young medical student, whose dreams are broken after motherhood calls. From the characters romance to the growing anger between the pair, both actor’s are pretty magnificent.

Cianfrance presents us with an array or shocking and powerful moments such as Dean and Cindy’s sweet and romantic ‘first date’ to the heart-wrenching abortion scene, where Cindy backs out. Regarding, the NC-17 rating controversy – the sex, that is presented is not overly graphic, and seems like quite an extreme stance to take, compared to the BBFC 15 rating.

I’d say you have to be in the right frame of mind to appreciate this, otherwise you might find it a little slow. Also, at the end of the film – it does not appear the characters will change their ways and no progress has been made, so if you can’t handle a gritty sour take on decaying relationships, with no happy ending – stay away!

The film is on quite a limited release, so catch it if you can and is worth primarily seeing for the acting skills of Williams and Gosling.