blue valentine (no spoilers)

so real, so heartwrenching, so....... real. its like when you're innocently sitting in a mall and a couple starts quarreling in front of you and you don't know where to look - just that this feels like an intrusion into the conversations between two people that others (you and i) were never meant to hear. the mood, the acting, the script - so beautifully reaches a portrayal of intimacy that i've never felt before. i was michelle williams. i was gripping my seat in dread, i was torn between hate and love and frustration, and i was there cringing with shame and embarrassment along with her.

I kept having to remind myself that Michelle Williams was just acting out a part. I love Ryan Gosling no doubt - he served up a palatable character of a dogged and self-assured man with a wonderful (almost childlike) sincerity and innocence at the heart. But Williams just completely outshines him from the very first scene.

I wouldn't say that Blue Valentine is one of the best films I've seen, but it definitely ranks as one of the most impressive emotional orchestras I've witnessed in a film - from its tremulous beginnings, to the battle for harmony between Gosling and Williams - like two violins playing the same melody but horribly out of tune. When you break it down, the main storyline is really, almost like any other teen movie we've all watched at one point of time or another. But flicking back and forth between past and present with seamless, melancholy style, Blue Valentine is about the not-so-happily-ever-after in a way which is painful in its honesty.

Definitely NOT the best movie to watch on a first date/valentines day. Blue Valentine is wistful for the past and heartbreakingly grounded in reality.