Movie Reveiw - Blue Valentine

So to start off the new year I am going to review every movie I watch at the theater (if I reviewed every movie I watched then that would take forever since I watch at least one a day). I was going to start a completely new blog for reviews but c'mon, movies are my life so they deserve to be in the blog with my life.
It is also time-consuming and almost pointless to start a new blog since I only have like 6 readers.
Ok, some stuff to get out of the way:
- I will not reveal any more than what you can see in the movie's trailer or anything that can be read in another review. However, trailers and review reveal a lot so don't get mad at me for "spoiling" the movie.
- I will very likely go off on a random monologue once in a while. I'm just saying.
- This is my opinion. You are free to go and pay $10, watch the movie yourself, and form your own opinion.

Let's begin.
First movie of the year is Blue Valentine starring Academy Award nominees Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson) and Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain). Now, I've learned a thing or two from a really good teacher that I've had for about three semesters now and one of the most important things is this: A story is about one person, everyone else is a supporting character. Or the antagonist. So Blue Valentine is not the story of a couple whose marriage is falling apart, it's about Dean and the realization that his marriage is falling apart.
Dean is a balding house painter with no ambition. His wife,Cindy, is a nurse who no longer loves him. That's a fact. Why doesn't she love him? Who knows. Maybe because he's going bald. Maybe because he paints houses for a living and starts drinking beer at eight in the morning. Maybe because he has no ambition.
Maybe because she's selfish? (Blame it on the woman)
So to save his marriage Dean checks them in to a hotel where the rooms all have a theme. They have a choice between Cupid's Cove and The Future Room. The fact that Cindy chooses The Future Room should be a big fat sign of what's about to happen. From here we go back and forth between the present depressing day and the past where love was fresh and new and people believed in love at first sight. We see that Dean was once a young, handsome and Caring guy (yeah, I mean that with a capital C). And we meet Cindy, studying to be a doctor and dating a douchebag wrestler. During one family dinner, as her father belittles her mother, she wonders if they were ever in love.
That's the setting and if I say more then I'll give away the film (which I promise to never do). But I love the contrast between how these people met, fell in love, and became a couple and how they are now. In terms of the film and how it's shot most of the camera either focuses on Williams or Gosling and I do mean focus. We are right in their face during arguments, trying to read their reactions and expressions. You can't do this with just any random actors. Nope, you have to have people that are good and Williams and Gosling are effing perfect. In fact, Williams is so damn good that if I had a vote I'd give it to her over Natalie Portman. And I'm a Portman fan! But I'm a true believer in less is more and while Portman went all out and worked her ass off for months to do ballet training and whatnot, Williams just delivers. I can't wait to see her as Marylin Monroe.
The movie as a whole is good and sad and sweet. Originally it received an NC-17 rating which going in I thought I'd catch a glimpse of little Ryan but no such luck. In fact, the movie's pretty tame compared to other films I've seen. I can't quite understand the reasoning behind it and neither could Harvey Weinstein. That's why he got a team of lawyers and threatened to sue if they didn't change it to an R, which they did. Just so that you are not surprised I think there are three or four "love scenes" in the film and one joke involving a child molester and a little boy.
If you're a pessimist in terms of love and marriage then, well, this is the movie for you. If you're an optimist, well, let me recommend ANOTHER movie for you: The Kids are All Right. It's with Annette Benning, Julianne Moore, and Mark Ruffalo. It's fun, funny, and all that stuff put together. There are also about three or four scenes in that one too. So no matter which one you pick you get to see some action.