As ideal first date movies go,
Blue Valentine is absolutely not the one to take your potential spouse to, unless you both get off on the misery, destruction and downright horribleness of a failed relationship. Although frankly if that's the case you're probably the kind of person who would rather spend a first date at an abattoir rather than a cinema, which means you're reading the wrong blog.
That's not to say
Blue Valentine is a wrist-slashing bleakfest; it's actually witty and charming but also brutally honest. Cutting between the cockle-warming start and heartbreaking collapse of a four-year relationship, it sets Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling the challenge of playing characters at both ends of the hopeful / hopeless spectrum, and they're both incredible.
The script contains more comedy than you would expect from such a potentially depressing story, not to mention the second-most un-PC child molestor joke I've ever heard (not that there's an abundance of PC child molestor jokes) and it's intelligently directed by first-timer and amateur Ryan Gosling lookalike Derek Cianfrance.
Not only that but at as a bonus you get to see Ryan Gosling in one of the great movie jumpers of our time,
and you discover what the inside of a robot's vagina looks like. If either of those things crop up in any other films at this year's LFF I'll be very surprised.
In other news, having praised Ryan Rodney Reynolds for his amazing turn in
Buried, it would be remiss of me not to point this out:
Blue Valentine is showing at 6pm on Friday 15th October at Vue Leicester Square and at 1.30pm on Sunday 17th October at the NFT on the South Bank.
Sounds like one to see although I'm a bit bemused by the robot vagina comment!
ReplyDeleteReminds me of Adam and Joe talking about having sex with a robot! Joe said he wouldn't go for it because, the inside might not be smooth and his penis might get snagged on something and he'd be stuck! :D.....
...and on another note, I do like Michelle Williams, she was great in Brokeback.
I'd like to see RRR and Gosling trapped in a box together and see who could act their way out of it.
ReplyDeleteI have put a perma-link to you on my blog, Mr Suit. Hope that's okay!
That is acceptable.
ReplyDeleteWhere would Ryan Phillippe fit on the Ryanometer? I last saw him in a straight to video Jasn Statham film
ReplyDeleteI think you may have answered your own question there.
ReplyDeleteAww I liked him in Cruel Intentions and Flags of Our Fathers. :p
ReplyDeleteNot only are the leads amazing, but the script is perfectly hard-hitting, with some of the heaviest stuff I have seen in the past 2 years. It really does have you second guess your whole idea on love, and whether or not it's worth it after all.
ReplyDelete