In a surprising development, the MPAA ratings board has slapped an NC-17 rating on Blue Valentine, the Derek Cianfrance-directed drama that is creating Oscar buzz for the performances of Ryan Gosling and Michelle Willams. The film, about the slow corrosion of the relationship between a young couple, was acquired by The Weinstein Company after its premiere at the last Sundance Film Festival. The film also played at Cannes and Toronto.
Dean (Ryan Gosling – The Notebook) is an idealistic dreamer/slacker who has started a new job as a removal man. During a routine job out of town he stumbles across Cindy (Michelle Williams – Dawson’s Creek), a driven young woman who at first isn’t interested in him but soon falls for Dean’s persistent charms. What follows is a breakdown of their relationship, sometimes told in flashbacks, as we learn what drew these two people together in the first place and poses the question of what happens to a relationship when love isn’t enough.
Blue Valentine is an unflinching, realistic take on love and relationships. It turns out to be a film heavy on artistic merit and emotional upheaval, but light on actual romance. With the release of Blue Valentine on Blu-Ray this week, audiences have a chance to take a closer look at this bleak love story and the avant-garde filming genius of helmer Derek Cianfrance.
A Life in Equinox writes:
It seems that the basic criteria for writing a review of Blue Valentine is that you open up with a melancholic prose on the destructive power of a dying relationship. Some go the doom and gloom route on how all relationships are a facade and to love is to embrace its inevitable demise. As the child to parents who have been married for thirty years, and the grandson to grandparents who've been married for sixty, that's one ticket I'm not buying. Nor am I buying the alternative viewpoint that all is bubblegum that it's really sad that these two just couldn't work it out.
