Blue Valentine is a 2010 independent drama film directed by Derek Cianfrance.
The film is about the doomed marriage of Dean (
Ryan Gosling), a uneducated man working for a moving company, and Cindy (Michelle Williams), a medical student. The film cuts between their early relationship and a weekend several years later, after they are married and presumably near the end of their relationship.
The film features a score composed by the indie rock band Grizzly Bear. Michelle Williams was nominated for a 2011 Best Actress Oscar for her role as Cindy.
Blue Valentine has examples of:
- Anachronic Order: The story is told with scenes switching from their failing marriage to when they first fell in love.
- The Baby Trap: The kid isn't Dean's, but its the driving force of why the couple decide to get married.
- Contrast Montage: Takes this one to the logical extreme - the entire movie is basically a contrast montage.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Dean's the poster child for this trope in the flashbacks.
- Dark Reprise: Played with: early in the movie during the present storyline Dean puts on a song that he and Cindy slow dance to shortly after fighting in the hotel room. Later on in a flashback Dean plays it and declares to be their song, this actually makes the earlier scene sadder despite its reprise occurring during a happy scene.
- Dead Sparks
- Downer Ending
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Looks like it's going to be averted, but then played straight at the last possible minute.
- Idealized Sex: Subverted in one of the saddest, most depressing consensual sex scenes in the past decade.
- Jerkass: Bobby.
- Dean isn't much better, to be honest. At least when drunk. Still less violent, though (for a given value of "less.")
- The Masochism Tango
- Media Classifications: The film was originally given an NC-17 for a sad, realistic sex scene during a particularly emotional section of the movie. On appeal, the movie got an R rating without changing a single frame.
- Product Placement: The script for the movie won a $1 million prize from Chrysler, and the lead characters drive a Chrysler minivan in the final product.
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