Two-Cent Review: "Blue Valentine"

**(original release: 2010)**

Another swing and a miss on the Video Back-Log.

Per request by one of my faithful readers, I rented "Blue Valentine".  Let me preface that I am not revoking the request privileges of my fans...but this one made me question why this particular fan requested this one.

It's an interesting concept:  we find Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams), a married couple of some indeterminate years, and the film cuts between when they fall in love, and now, when they're falling out of love with each other.  And, like many great concepts in the indie film world, it gets mercilessly screwed up in the screenplay.

Director Derek Cianfrance ("Brother Tied"...yeah, I haven't heard of it either), along with co-writers Joey Curtis ("Brother Tied") and Cami Delavigne (feature film debut) create a movie that could've been great, but it's all in the execution.  Instead of showing the characters actually be in love and make the audience actually care about them and their romance, they show Dean and Cindy relatively better on their own rather than together -- Dean is a sweet guy who goes out of his way to help others, while Cindy is a free-spirit from a miserable home and a moronic boyfriend.  So okay, Dean is better off at least.  The point is that this film did not make me care about either of them in the 40 minutes I kept this in the player.

I usually enjoy Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, but this film made me too sad to actually enjoy their performances here.  As a writer, I know how crucial the screenplay is to a film.  Much like "Star Wars" Episodes 1, 2, and 3, it doesn't matter how good the actors are.  If the screenplay sucks, it makes the actors look hackneyed and amateurish.

Perhaps the film gets better in the second half, I'll never know.  I couldn't get myself to get there.  It's a mystery what other movie critics saw in this movie, but it matters not.  I sadly could not get into this film.

MY TWO CENTS:  I don't know what the critics saw in this to give it such good reviews, but "Blue Valentine" is a prime example of how not all independent movies are good.  Writer/director Derek Cianfrance has three upcoming projects.  Let's pray that at least one of them is better than this.