I sit through way too many romantic comedies each year hoping that one of them will wind up being something like “Crazy Stupid Love.” Coming at the tail end of summer 2011, this genre-pic manna tastes way too sweet. But it’s not worthy of exaltation just due to the sea of flops surrounding it or praise just because it wasn’t bad, it’s actually just a good movie, one with heart, humor, and insight.
Take away the Christmas setting and it’s actually reminiscent of a small-scale “Love Actually.” The movie provides perspectives on love from Generations X, Y, and Z, stories that are told with an uncanny sincerity that overpowers their slightly hackneyed development. Written by Dan Fogelman, who had previously only dabbled in light kiddie fare like “Tangled” and “Cars 2,” delivers a work full of maturity and scope, one that winds up being surprisingly clever. The movie has a few tricks up its sleeves, and it makes the movie a great deal more engaging than any other movie dealing with this subject matter.
Fogelman’s best maneuver, however, may be reminding us to expect the unexpected when it comes to something as complicated (or crazy and stupid) as love. While Hollywood may require a certain ending point, the journey to get there doesn’t have to be formulaic or predictable. The characters of “Crazy Stupid Love” make that voyage fun because they are hardly conventional romantic comedy archetypes, save perhaps Emma Stone’s insecure burgeoning career woman.
“Blue Valentine” is a story about a couple told in two different parts: how they come together and ultimately how they fall apart. Like the yin and the yang, they complement each other to create a picture of broken marriage with vivid and heartbreaking color. Writer and director Derek Cianfrance uses the broken narrative to provide the story with a harrowing sense of perspective as we observe what once sparked attraction between the two fuels repulsion six years later.
The movie opens on a scene of Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) six years into their marriage, and no screaming match or fight is necessary to show that their relationship is crumbling. With the demands of their daughter, the hassle of a lost pet, and the tension between their disparate jobs, the strain in their love is perfectly illustrated by their body language towards each other.
Cold, cruel, and distant they have grown – and Cianfrance doesn’t indulge us by telling where and when it all went south. Is what we observe with the dog simply the straw that broke the camel’s back? Was it having a child? Or did their love gently erode over time? “Blue Valentine” doesn’t offer us an easy answer, leaving it up to the audience to discuss in the theater lobby and the parking lot.
However, the question I asked wasn’t what caused them to fall out of love; I wondered if they were ever in love in the first place. Strategically interspersed among their separation are flashbacks of Dean’s courtship of Cindy, which came as she was losing a dear relative and trying to shed an abusive father and boyfriend. Perhaps it was just a perfect storm of circumstances that brought them together, not love. And again, there’s no easy answer to that, which makes the heavy “Blue Valentine” land a little softer.
Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling, the stars of “Blue Valentine,” both missed out on Golden Globe wins and BAFTA nominations. But will both, one, or neither get Oscar nominations? Perhaps it’s time to check the poll!
There were five voters in the poll, and none of them thought that Ryan Gosling alone would get nominated or that neither of them would get nominated. However, 40% thought Williams alone would receive a nomination. In my opinion, she was the better of the two, and I’d much rather see her get nominated than her co-star.
60% of voters thought that both would get nominated. I think what could end up hurting “Blue Valentine” in the end is that it’s like a combo deal: you can’t nominated one without the other. I feel like it’s more likely to see both left off than one put on. Williams has a better shot than Gosling at a nomination, but I feel like her fifth slot is ripe for a surprise nominee like Hailee Steinfeld, Noomi Rapace, or Julianne Moore (!).
You’ve probably heard about “Blue Valentine” for all the wrong reasons, particularly because of the absurd NC-17 rating it received at the hands of the violence-loving but genophobic (that’s the fear of sex) ratings boards of the MPAA. Harvey Weinstein lawyered up and is now going to stare down the ridiculous organization until they renege on the rating that has led all other movies to final ruin.
Why is the movie NC-17, for all those curious out there wondering? Because it dared to give an honest portrayal of a relationship in its most devastating moments. The movie has gained a reputation over the past year, after playing at Sundance, Cannes, and Toronto, for being a brutal watch but incredibly powerful because it dares to not fall into Hollywood schmaltz. As Guy Lodge of In Contention put it when he first saw the movie at Cannes, the movie’s tagline should be “don’t see it with someone you love.”
The reviews so far have been fantastic, and they have been consistently rolling in as the film plays a new festival. Kris Tapley of In Contention wrote in October that he “found it to be a delicate and truthful examination of a relationship in crisis.” Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly raved:
“No movie I’ve seen at Sundance this year conjures the possibilities — or the current, gloom-and-doom marketplace environment — of independent film more powerfully than Blue Valentine. A lushly touching, wrenching, and beautifully told story, directed by Derek Cianfrance with a mood of entwined romantic dreams and romantic loss …”
The movie is a promising debut for writer/director Derek Cianfrance, and if the critics really show their love for the movie through their year-end awards, I think he could be rewarded with a Best Original Screenplay nomination. Best Director this year will be packed full of some fan favorites reaching their peak (Fincher, maybe Nolan and Aronofsky), and the choice newcomer of 2010 will probably be Tom Hooper for “The King’s Speech.”
But I get the sense that the reward for “Blue Valentine” will come through its actors, Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. It is their movie, and most reviews I read state that Cianfrance largely steps out of the way and lets them create the art. According to Sasha Stone of Awards Daily, this movie is the culmination of a whole lot of work and passion from Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams:
“… Director Derek Cianfrance has been meticulously working on this film for a good ten years. He brought it to Michelle Williams back in 2003, and a few years later they brough in Ryan Gosling. The idea was to wait until the two of them were old enough to be believable in the part. Since the film takes place in different moments in time, the actors had to take a hiatus and change themselves physically before coming back to film the later scenes of the couple.”
Cianfrance went to great measures to get the most authentic performances possible out of his actors. Gosling and Williams largely lived their roles during filming, and Cianfrance captured as much of it as possible. Praise has been pouring out for the two stars, ranging from “the performances of their careers” (Stone) to “pitch-perfect” and “gold” (Tapley). Gosling and Williams, who both recently turned 30, are tremendously respected for their ages as can be seen through their previous nominations. Both face difficult fields, but I think they can do it simply because “Blue Valentine” appears to fly because they knock it out of the park.
And then there’s the big question of them all: what about Best Picture? For starters, it’s already racked up one nomination on the road to glory. The Gotham Independent Film Awards recognized “Blue Valentine” as one of the five best independent movies of the year, along with other hopefuls like “The Kids Are All Right,” “Black Swan,” and “Winter’s Bone.” This group picked last year’s Best Picture winner, “The Hurt Locker,” as their favorite and nominated “A Serious Man,” a 2009 Best Picture nominee, as well. The Gotham Awards are hardly a reliable indicator for Oscar tastes, though, with a Best Picture nominee popping up every once in a while.
So who knows? The publicity from the ratings drama isn’t hurting, but with the film’s release set for December 31, it will have very little time to find an audience, making it the “obscure indie” pick that the expanded field might be phasing out.
BEST BETS FOR NOMINATIONS: Best Actor, Best Actress
OTHER POSSIBLE NOMINATIONS: Best Picture, Best Director
You’ve probably heard about “Blue Valentine” for all the wrong reasons, particularly because of the absurd NC-17 rating it received at the hands of the violence-loving but genophobic (that’s the fear of sex) ratings boards of the MPAA. Harvey Weinstein lawyered up and is now going to stare down the ridiculous organization until they renege on the rating that has led all other movies to final ruin.
But I get the sense that the reward for “Blue Valentine” will come through its actors, Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. It is their movie, and most reviews I read state that Cianfrance largely steps out of the way and lets them create the art. According to Sasha Stone of Awards Daily, this movie is the culmination of a whole lot of work and passion from Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams:
Marshall and the Movies 
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