Number 881 on the top 1000 films of all time is Derek Cianfrance's 2010 romantic drama 'Blue Valentine.'
Blue Valentine tells the relationship between under-achieving slacker Dean (Ryan Gosling) and his over-worked nurse wife Cindy (Michelle Williams.) The film flashes back and forth between the start of their relationship and their eventual breakdown and divorce.
I've watched a few Ryan Gosling films and while I think he is a versatile and charismatic actor, I have never liked the films themselves. They're either too sentimental or too dark or in the case of Blue Valentine too bleak. And bleak is putting it lightly. This isn't a film that will have you leaving the cinema with a warm, fuzzy feeling, but rather the saddest frown on your face. I imagine this was Cianfrance's intention, so in that sense, he succeeded in making one of the most depressing films since the Pianist.
There isn't anything inherently wrong with unremittently bleak films, but there has to be something more than the unremittent bleakness. True, there are the flashbacks to the happy start of Dean and Cindy's relationship - while these scenes were cute especially the tap dancing/ukulele scene, but they always played second fiddle to the present timeline where their marriage falls apart. Any warm, fuzzy feeling was replaced with a sinking stomach, as I saw this once happy couple scream at each other.
And due to the unrelenting bleakness you know it's only going to end in one way. These characters are never going to rediscover their love for one another and live happily ever after. There is nothing wrong with knowing how a film is going to end, but it does kill the narrative tension.
Cianfrance was inspired by his parent's divorce and the pain that caused him as a young man. And he wanted to create a film that charted the beginning and end of a relationship. In that sense, he succeeded. But did he have to make it so damn depressing? I do like Ryan Gosling as an actor, I'm just waiting to see a Ryan Gosling film that I actually like.
It is a depressing film. But the 2 lead stars are very good. The dialogue and plot have the ring of truth about them. But I'd never want to see it again. Life's depressing enough without watching it on the screen.
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