This is as far from a pleasant and heart-warming experience as you can have in the cinema, but it is an exceptional and brutal piece of filmmaking.
A raw slog through one couple’s marital misery, but make no mistake: the combined talents of its stars will rip your heart out.
A raw but beautiful picture of love uniting and dividing: tender, real and heartfelt.
Blue Valentine is a tough and tender drama that doesn't pull any punches, and it's a thrill to see two of the best actors of their generation going toe-to-toe.
Anecdotal, self-aware and agonised, Blue Valentine tends to pay dividends in terms of character rather than plot and dialogue.
As a debut feature this is an intermittently but hugely promising movie.
The antithesis of a date movie.
In Gosling and Williams, we get two of the best indie-leaning actors in the business, and they deliver a pair of subtle and devastatingly real performances.
Derek Cianfrance's film is a sombre, painful portrait of a toxic marriage, often touching and sometimes moving, though occasionally contrived and self-conscious in its effects.
Like a low-key Revolutionary Road, all adults will be able to recognise these two characters and their motivations which makes Blue Valentine such an engaging, well-observed movie.
The performances are heartfelt and poignant, and the story rings true.
The bleakness of this is partly offset by the committed performances of the leads.
Blue Valentine brims with hard-to-forget scenes.
It's a brutal, beautiful and affecting piece of work.
I'd place a caveat emptor on Blue Valentine as date viewing, but it's a persuasive and intelligent piece. As marital dramas go, it's not John Cassavetes by a long chalk, but it's film of grit and grace.
Both Williams and Gosling give excellent, detailed performances, at once spontaneous and carefully considered, playing people who cannot understand or properly articulate their position.
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General release. Check local listings for show times.
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