Blue Valentine - a movie about love that doesn't work

Blue valentine is a romantic drama film about the life of middle-class young married couple, beautifully acted by Ryan Gosling (previously, known for his acting in The Notebook) and Michelle William (she did a lot of works, but the most I remembered is when she played Heath Ledger’s wife in Brokeback Mountain and also in Dawson Creek). This Academy Award’s nominated film shifts back and forth in time: the past and the present of their courtship. Director, Derek Cianfrance, intended this film to began shooting when both actors were still younger, as Williams received the script ever since she was 21. But this intention failed due to financial issues.

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Below is my plot summary, well it contains a spoiler, so in case you are intending to watch the movie, and prefer it best without someone spoiling the story, I guess, you’d better not read further. 

The movie opens with a little girl named Frankie, who is screaming for Megan, her dog. Frankie is the daughter of Dean and Cindy. While busy looking for Megan, Dean decides to go back home. Morning rituals of this small family then starts: Cindy takes Megan to school, and goes to the hospital where she works as a nurse. From the beginning of the film, the couple seems to have fallen out of love. The relationship is numb, particularly seen from Cindy’s facial expression and gesture towards her husband.

The plot starts to flash back.

Dean applied work to a moving and storage company, though he had no experience before. Despite this, he tried to enjoy his job – making friends with his seniors. He helped people moving: from packing things in the old place, moving, unpacking things in the new place, and finally decorating things from all packages – which I must say an interesting scene: in one scene, Dean and his friends was helping an old man moving to an old people home. He unpacked Walter’s stuffs and decorated the small room so nicely that it captured Walter’s old life. Upon leaving Walter in the old people home, Dean took the money his friend left for him on Walter’s table, and coincidently watched by someone.

The scene then dissolves to the present.

Cindy tells Dean that she actually has found Megan – dead. They decide to not tell Frankie, and bring her to stay overnight at Cindy’s father. Dean buries Megan, both Cindy and Dean are in tears. To relieve the pain and to refresh their relationship, Dean get a crazy idea of going to a hotel to “get drunk and make love”. While journeying to the hotel, Cindy bumps into an old friend – Bobby Ontario. They have a casual conversation just like two people that haven’t met for a long time. Cindy then tells Dean whom she just met. Dean gets weird and funny, wondering why Cindy did not tell him while they were still at the store. This upsets both eventually.

Plot fades back to Cindy’s past.

Michelle Williams

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Cindy – a student – was on her wheelchair (admitting she was a paraplegic). The camera shows her while she went around campus. While passing a gym, she stopped and took a look over the window – Bobby Ontario was fighting someone for wrestling club. Apparently, Cindy and Bobby used to be a couple, although the scene shows that Bobby did not have a respect for Cindy – except sex. Visiting her grandma, Cindy asked her grandma about love. Her grandma admitted she had not ever fallen in love, even with her current husband. She might have fallen in love at one point in her life, but she lost the feeling. Same things happened for Cindy’s parents. Grandma said Cindy should be careful of the person whom she fell in love to – he must have regard for her as a person. In spite of what her grandma said, Cindy still saw Bobby. After class, they had sex in Bobby’s place, and inadvertently, Bobby ejaculated inside Cindy – which made matters worse for their relationship although Cindy seemed to be madly in love with him. Afterwards, Cindy paid a visit to her grandma in the old people’s home – when she saw a young man took bills from an old man’s room. This was when Cindy and Dean met for the first time. Dean left his office number, hoping that someday Cindy would call him.

In the present, the couple makes it to the motel – a special designated room called the future room, which is actually rather silly. Bobby attempts to create a romantic moment with his wife, although Cindy seems frigid or simply uninterested. Eventually, when Dean plays their personal song (You And Me by Penny and the Quarter), the couple appears to reconnect.

While the plots went back to the past, Bobby tried to persuade Cindy who was taking her grandma to her parents’ house. Cindy just simply refused to talk which infuriated Bobby. Meanwhile, Dean was impatiently waiting for Cindy to call, but she did not. He talked about love  at the first sight to his friends at work, just like he had a very strong feeling to Cindy – who was still a medical student back then. But he thought he could not do anything about it, because he did not have any information about her. His friend talked him to visit the old people’s home to find out about Cindy by asking her grandma – which he did. But he did not get any info, neither did he meet her. But on the way back, he accidently met Cindy on a bus. They talked, and started to get attracted to each other. And got off the bus, and walked together to talk more. They even tap-danced and sang together – a song the actor Gosling composed and performed by himself.

And the scene fades to black, to the present.

Ryan Gosling as Dean

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The couple eventually are having dinner and drinks, when Cindy asks him “why don’t you do something?”. Apparently, Cindy think Dean has so many potentials that he just lets go. After years, Dean still works for the same company and proud that this job still allows him to drink beers at 8 in the morning and see his family in the evening. Cindy thinks he has no ambition, but Dean thinks potential does not have to turn into something else – something he is not sure of. Cindy says, “we rarely have an adult conversation, cause every time we have, you take what I say, and turn it into something I didn’t mean – you just … twist it.” But then the couple starts wrestling for fun, and have more drinking til Cindy almost falls asleep while waiting for Dean who goes to pee. When Dean yelps for help as he slips on his way to the toilet, he seduced Cindy into making love by asking “you wanna have another baby with me? Cos I wanna have another baby with you.” But Cindy still rejected him somehow. She locked him up out of the bedroom.

As Cindy sits and gets confused, the film shifts to the past.

Still madly in love with each other, Cindy and Dean spent more time together, doing silly things and surely made love. The other day, at the uni, Cindy found out she was pregnant. Confused, she held Dean’s card, but approached by Bobby who took the card with Bobby’s work address on it. Cindy met Dean who figured out something happened, and annoyingly made Cindy tell him what happened (by threatening to jump off the bridge). Dean accompanied Cindy to a clinic to have abortion, but then Cindy walked out from the process. In the end, even though it was not his baby, Dean asked Cindy to marry her, saying he would take a responsibility over Cindy and the baby in spite of the baby’s biological father.

In the present plot, Cindy wakes up at a call from the hospital, saying they need her to work that morning. She then decides to go without waking Dean up, only leaving a message. This then makes Dean angry in finding out he’s being left in a motel without notification.

Plot shifts to the past again. Cindy was home, happy to find Dean who wanted to be responsible for her and her baby even though it wasn’t his. Bobby left a message for her, cursing her and telling her that he was going to end Dean. Cindy tried to call Dean, but failed as Dean was already visited by Bobby and his friends. He was beaten up by this gang.

Although exhausted, Cindy continues working her early shift at the hospital. The doctor, who previously offered her a promotion at another hospital out of town, again persuades her into going, but he also tries to flirts with her. Cindy gets disappointed, saying she’s married and she thought the doctor offered her the job because of her performance at work, not personal preference. Drunk, Dean goes after Cindy to the hospital – but confronted by her friend (“don’t let him brainwash you”). This goes on to other arguments between the couple, until Cindy says she has enough (“I’m done being angry like this”). She can’t take it anymore with Dean, she admits for not having the feeling anymore. After hitting the doctor and getting Cindy fired, Dean follows Cindy to the car, when he takes off his wedding ring and throws it away at the bush. But then he goes back to look for it again.

In the past, the scene moves to Cindy’s parents house where Cindy’s family were inviting Dean to dinner. Cindy’s father noticed this getting serious relationship, and started asking Dean his family background and his occupation, which seemed to get no positive reviews from Cindy’s parents. This time, Dean presented her with a CD, containing the “you and me” song for the first time, making it officially their song.

my favorite scene of the movie
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Back to the present plot, Cindy and Dean drives to Cindy’s father house. Here, they have another argument, where Dean urges Cindy to think about Frankie so that she reconsiders her decision, he even cries in this scene. But Cindy says, “we’re not good together anymore …  the way that we treat each other … I can’t stop, you can’t stop, I can’t stop, I don’t know what else to do.” And Dean comes hugging her. The scene dissolves to the past, Cindy and Dean were getting married, a simple but happy marriage. Then back to the present, Dean leaves Cindy’s father’s house. Frankie runs after him, begging him not to go. Though in tears, Dean decides to trick her to go back to her mom, where she says to her mom she loves Dean. And they walk away from each other.

I don’t know why, but I like this movie. I am not a movie critic, nor an expert in movie technique or storyline. But this movie has this nuances of depicting how love can just disappear and change through time. How couple who were madly in love with each other at one point of their lives starts hating being near each other. The actors in this movie really act naturally, I think – well they were nominated for Academy Awards as best actress and actor in a drama. It shows how love doesn’t always end up happy. Maybe I like it because I can relate with the story. As Taylor Swift says in her song, “people are people and sometimes we change our minds” – especially when you no longer see the bright side of your partner. 

A happy relationship in the beginning may end with a damage, you just have to admit it, and accept the truth, even if you have to end up hurt. It does not mean you weren't much in love in the beginning. At least, you’ll grow through it. This is not selfish, this is what I consider realistic. ;)

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