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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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 Posted - 12/25/2010 : 17:27:56
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I guess how much you take from this film will depend on how many others like it you've seen before, and whether you think this version - directed and co-scripted by Derek Cianfrance and co-produced by stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams - tells you anything new.
When I say 1) I've seen lots and 2) nope, you'll get an idea of my own assessment.
But first the good stuff. Gosling and Williams are almost in an acting duel, thrusting and parrying - and not just sexually. They play a couple teetering on marital disaster, torn apart by her emotional estrangement, his amorous delusions, and devotion to Frankie, their small adorable daughter (Faith Wladyka quite brilliant).
As the day progresses we get to change and change again opinions of who could/should take responsibility for the couple's disintegration. Punctuating these scenes are a series of flashbacks over the years of meeting, wooing, sharing fun, lotsa sex, whispers of dreams, and ultimate disappointments.
You keep wanting to reach into the screen and hand them each the number of a terrific couples counsellor.
At one point - perhaps THE point - of realization, we get the warring couple each admitting they just don't know what to do. That the answer for her is so different than for him underscores their ultimate incompatibility. And yet, perhaps, there is a wisp of hope.
The film has quite a European sensibility, and that's a change from most La-la Land depictions of personal problems. But I'm not sure why I'm meant to be engaged by this particular version of a post-modern family phenomenon.
I suspect it would all have more potency if it made more of the unintended effects of the socio-economics of society on what's expected from the so-called norm.
Am I supposed to use Cindi and Dean's story to question what family love is all about? Because these people are just not that interesting. It's a bit like listening to someone recounting their dreams. You're pretty sure what they're saying has significance for them. You're just not really sure it has anything relevant for you.
But hey, I'm an old cynic and you may find all this stuff refreshing and novel.
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Edited by - BaftaBaby on 12/27/2010 19:00:33 |
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Blue Valentine- please see my Bafta thread
