Blue Valentine (2010)
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Reviews Counted: 186
Fresh: 163 | Rotten: 23
This emotionally gripping examination of a marriage on the rocks isn't always easy to watch, but Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling give performances of unusual depth and power.
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Critic Reviews: 40
Fresh: 34 | Rotten: 6
This emotionally gripping examination of a marriage on the rocks isn't always easy to watch, but Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling give performances of unusual depth and power.
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 52,853
My Rating
Movie Info
A relationship is charted from its promising beginning to its sad collapse in this independent drama from Derek Cianfrance. Dean (Ryan Gosling) meets Cindy (Michelle Williams) when they're in their late teens; he's working for a moving company, she's a college student visiting her elderly grandmother at a home for the elderly. Cindy is dating Bobby (Mike Vogel), her boyfriend from high school, but as she gets to know Dean better, a mutual attraction grows between them. Years later, Dean and
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Cast
-
Ryan Gosling
Dean -
Michelle Williams
Cindy -
Faith Wladyka
Frankie -
John Doman
Jerry -
Mike Vogel
Bobby -
Marshall Johnson
Marshall -
Jen Jones
Gramma -
Maryann Plunkett
Glenda -
James Benatti
Jamie -
Barbara Troy
Jo -
Carey Westbrook
Charley -
Ben Shenkman
Dr. Feinberg -
Eileen Rosen
Mimi -
Enid Graham
Professor -
Ashley Gurnari
Checker -
Jack Parshutich
Billy -
Samii Ryan
Amanda -
Mark Benginia
Concierge -
Timothy Liveright
Doctor -
Tamara Torres
Maria -
Robert Russell
Justice of the Peace -
Michelle Nagy
Music Teacher -
Felicia Reid
Nurse -
Mel Jurdem
Old Man -
Alan Malkin
Cab Driver -
Derik Belanger
Tony -
Isabella Frigoletto
Child #1 -
Madison Ledergerber
Child #2 -
Jaime Jensen
Pregnant Woman
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Blue Valentine Trailer & Photos
All Critics (186) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (164) | Rotten (23) | DVD (10)
Blue Valentine has a rare emotional intensity. There is no way to prepare for its final frames, inevitable as they are.
Top CriticA searing portrait of the disintegration of not just a marriage but, more importantly, the love that once fueled it.
An autopsy of a failed marriage, it contrasts the giddy honeymoon beginning with the sad denouement after dysfunction has devastated the groundwork of hope and newness.
Blue Valentine comes on like a bittersweet cautionary tale.
It's not an easy movie, but it is a powerful, unforgettable experience.
Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling tear up the screen.
[Director] Cianfrance is not interested in the Hollywood fairytale, he want to show that love can scar.
What we end up with here is 2/3 of a story that consequently feels incomplete. It obviously wanted to be something like "(500) Days of Summer" in terms of structure, but the writers just didn't know how to get up to that level.
Blue Valentine deserves a wide audience. But it is probably too authentically tragic to get it.
A pesar de su por momentos dolorosa disección de una pareja, Blue Valentine es una hermosa historia de amor condenada al fracaso (así de paradójico). Y está animada por dos intérpretes de excepción.
Moments so potent they seem to put the actors at emotional risk
An engaging and tough drama, for sure, but its ascension to instant indie classic on the back of festival screenings has left this reviewer slightly stumped.
... a crucible for very powerful performances and a convincing relationship in all its contradictions.
An enormously overheated yet oddly affecting movie gets an appropriately earnest DVD treatment.
...the film's unevenness ultimately [prevents] it from packing the emotional punch that Cianfrance is clearly going for.
From the movie's standpoint, [its story] is a common tragedy that deserves acknowledgment and pity, and it pulls absolutely no punches in sharing its view.
It's so close to achieving greatness it hurts.
It's complicated, like real life.
The bitter end still catches you by surprise with its crushing sadness.
Workshop-patchy
Knowing where the relationship is headed lends bittersweet notes to the scenes from the past, but the conclusions Blue Valentine draws ultimately feel pat.
...a raw, emotionally devastating experience.
Audience Reviews for Blue Valentine
Super Reviewer
"A Love Story"
Blue Valentine is pessimistic filmmaking, but great pessimistic filmmaking. It's what you'd almost label as an anti-love story and I would feel comfortable calling it a cautionary film as well. This isn't a romance film in the form we are used to seeing. It's not all happy endings and sunshine. This is a romance film for the divorce generation. The utter lack of optimism throughout the movie will definitely be a turnoff to some, but if you can appreciate a movie for being something different, then Blue Valentine is worth a look.
Blue Valentine follows a marriage between Dean and Cindy. It cuts between the present and the past. We see Dean and Cindy's marriage slowly unraveling as we see them fall in love too. I think the movie is brilliantly put together. Everything works in the order we're given, even though it isn't the order of the events. It works in a style that is close to, but not exactly along the lines of 500 Days of Summer.
The movie hooked me right off the bat and the reason is because of the two leads. Ryan Gosling and Michele Williams are two of the best in the business right now and together, they are more than amazing. Gosling has a way of just bringing power to his performances that few actors are able to do nowadays. Williams also has an extreme power to her performance. The chemistry between the two is off the charts. They have to play two people falling in love and falling out of love and they do it with such ease and precision.
This isn't a film for everyone. The independent and gritty feel of the film may be off-putting or maybe even unnerving to some. However, if you are like me and love independent films that are honest, even if the honesty isn't what we want to hear; then this is a film for you.
Super Reviewer
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- Cindy: How do you trust your feelings when they can just disappear like that?
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- Dean: What's your name?
- Cindy: Go away.
- Dean: Go away? That's a weird name.
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- Dean: It's like when you hear a song... and you gotta dance.
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- Dean: You said for better or for worse. You said that. You said it. It was a promise. Now, this is my worst, okay? This is my worst. But I'm gonna get better.
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- Dean: I feel that men are more romantic than women. When we get married we marry like one girl cause we'll resist it, the whole way. Till we meet one girl and we think, 'I'd be an idiot if I didn't marry this one girl, she's so great'. But seems like girls get to a place where they decide and pick... pick the best options, or something. Like, I know a girls who get married and they're like 'he's got a good job...'. I mean, they spend their whole life looking for Prince Charming and then they... they marry the guy that's got a good job and he's gonna stick around.
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- Dean: But I'm not getting old.
- Cindy: Oh really?
- Dean: He's a dummy for dying.
- Cindy: Walter's a dummy for dying?
- Dean: Yeah.
- Cindy: What are you gonna do wise guy?
- Bobby: Not do it.
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| People who like this movie: | 2 months ago | 3 |
Latest News on Blue Valentine
March 28, 2013:
Five Favorite Films with Derek CianfranceDerek Cianfrance's 2010 drama Blue Valentine earned strong reviews and confirmed stars Michelle...
August 10, 2011:
Rose Byrne Heads for The Place Beyond the PinesShe replaces Greta Gerwig in director Derek Cianfrance's crime drama, joining a cast that includes...
December 29, 2010:
Michelle Williams Talks Blue ValentinePhrases like "one of the finest actors of their generation" get tossed around with abandon and free...
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