There are movies about love everywhere, that is guaranteed, but what Hollywood usually does is give it a nice, predictable ending. It might be a romantic comedy about two people who just happened to be at the right place at the right time or a tragedy of two lovers, but whatever the case, it ends with powerful love and affection for one another. A formula success.
Then, once in while, there comes a movie that reminds you that they have the ability to portray reality as well and with love may come failure and heartbreak, divorce and grief. Yes, that really happens. Yes, love, no matter how hard you try, could turn out to be barren, the director tells you. and you listen. You watch. It is stunning and overwhelming as you, the viewer, takes it all in – the actors effortlessly telling the story. You see them exposed as they are crying, yelling, screaming, all in devastation.
This year, that movie would be Blue Valentine, an Oscar nominee as well. The movie flashes back to the couple, played by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, as they are in present day, and six years earlier, when they were starting out to be in love. But you can see, in present day, that they are already distant from each other, and there isn’t any love from each other or emotional connection. It is in fact, sadly, already a doomed marriage.
In all, the movie is cruel. It gives the husband, Dean no justice. We always see him worrying and fighting and trying. It is Cindy, the wife that is cold and passive and grave, like she’s already stopped trying. There is really no tenderness or happiness seen between them in present day. In fact, they do not even drive in the same car anymore. They talk to their only daughter differently as well.
In the beginning of the movie, it is discovered that the daughter, Frankie, is looking for her lost dog. Even this situation is dealt with hostilely between the two parents. One blames the other. The other finds the dog lying dead on the street. It is not a bright outlook already.
The ending is especially painful to watch -scenes switching between six years earlier, getting their vows done and telling each other they were happy in love, and present day, both finally admitting to the fact that it’s really over for them. They are now miles away from each other. The movie ends.
