Blue Valentine

Started by MacGuffin, December 09, 2010, 10:36:29 AM

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SiliasRuby

This is a tough film to watch. I don't see how people can really love this film. I don't think its a film that I can watch over and over again but its a bold one that can be admired... Amazing breathtaking performances though...
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Pas

Wow definitely a top film of last year. Amazing performances. Reminded me a bit of my relationship we've gone through a lot of that shit and now we're 7 years in and it's good but it was rocky.

Anyway good film.

Gold Trumpet

I tried watching this late on a work night. Got an hour in before I drifted off into sleep, but I was already bored with it. As a film that was trying to pride itself on realism, the film was banking on too much easy and dumb foreshadowing and simple editing transition tricks. Instead of watch the film, all I did is watch the easy predictability of the filmmaking mechanisms. Does the rest of the film warrant my watching? Absolutely, but when I woke up and guessed to my friends what happened and was told I was correct, the thought of watching the rest immediately felt like a duller proposition.

children with angels

There are some potential criticisms of the film that I think are valid, but predictability seems like a strange one. I don't feel like we're ever supposed to be in any doubt about how the plot and structure of the film is going to pan out - in fact, a big part of the power of the movie, I thought, is the painful inevitability with which it progresses: one strand of them coming together being intercut with another strand showing them being torn apart. It's a very simple, but (for me) extremely poignant, collision of the narratives of romantic comedy and romantic melodrama - one being concerned with building towards the 'happy ending', the other showing what follows that 'ending'.
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Pas

Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on May 21, 2011, 09:24:00 AM
Instead of watch the film, all I did is watch the easy predictability of the filmmaking mechanisms.

If I ever become this cynical, kick me in the face.

Sometimes I don't get how some of you guys watch movies... like the heart doesn't matter. Some are all in the head, I'm all in the heart (and the cock)

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: children with angels on May 21, 2011, 10:03:37 AM
There are some potential criticisms of the film that I think are valid, but predictability seems like a strange one. I don't feel like we're ever supposed to be in any doubt about how the plot and structure of the film is going to pan out - in fact, a big part of the power of the movie, I thought, is the painful inevitability with which it progresses: one strand of them coming together being intercut with another strand showing them being torn apart. It's a very simple, but (for me) extremely poignant, collision of the narratives of romantic comedy and romantic melodrama - one being concerned with building towards the 'happy ending', the other showing what follows that 'ending'.

Well, what it did for my viewing is that it stunted how involved I got with the story. I don't go into movies wanting to wear any hat with how I watch it. It just happens. You may point to an inevitability factor in the story, fine, but the movie does ask you to just immerse yourself in the everyday realism of the story at the beginning. I never saw a good tone or structure which wasn't making me think of unnecessary ploys it was using to foreshadow much much later into the film. For me, it's all about development. The ploys did not help develop any different strands in the story and an hour into the film, it all became too repetitive already. It's about creating realism and it didn't work here. 

Pas, don't take my words personally. It happens that people shrug their shoulders at a movie. It also happens that another person loves that movie and wishes you weren't being so "cynical".

Pozer

Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on May 21, 2011, 09:24:00 AM
I tried watching this late on a work night. Got an hour in before I drifted off into sleep, but I was already bored with it. As a film that was trying to pride itself on realism, the film was banking on too much easy and dumb foreshadowing and simple editing transition tricks. Instead of watch the film, all I did is watch the easy predictability of the filmmaking mechanisms. Does the rest of the film warrant my watching? Absolutely, but when I woke up and guessed to my friends what happened and was told I was correct, the thought of watching the rest immediately felt like a duller proposition.

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Ravi

I was hoping the flashback scenes would progress beyond the VERY beginning of the relationship and into showing the breakdown process, but it never did. Yeah, I get it, Dean is an ambitionless alcoholic wasting his talents. Let's see where Cindy started falling out of love with him. There were some great moments that illustrated their relationship, such as in the hotel when Dean is trying to make love to Cindy and she doesn't reciprocate, but she doesn't turn him away either. But overall the film was a Cliffs Notes version of the relationship. Sure, we get all the story beats, but nothing that makes the story engaging or moving. I thought 500 Days of Summer did a much better job of showing that middle part, which is where the most interesting stuff is.

72teeth

I love this film, and i think it's one i'll return to often in me loyf, but it'll always be a melancholy watch...
it kinda broke up a relationship before we ever had a chance to break it up ourselves. it was just too similar to us, the little things (her being a nurse) and the big things (*dookdookdook) it was like watching a projection of things to come and we both couldn't deny it. It fought all the fights we'd have before we ever had a chance to fight them, and it cut to the conclusions we were both didn't want to own up to, and it revealed hidden agendas in both of us. We left that theatre with my arm wrapped around her, hip to hip, but there was something definitely between us after that... I want to thank you, Blue Valentine, for stopping us before we got there, but it was also none of your goddamn business. See you when i'm down
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Robyn

It's funny how this felt way more depressing when I was in a relationship, now I just thought "yeah, love sucks, tell me something that I didn't knew already!" Some amazing scenes that felt very human and real, tho. And it's always nice to see a film with characters this flawed. Especially Ryan Goslings character, which I hated but probably because he reminded me to much about myself. I could also relate to how fucking mean they treated each other as if it was totally normal. Me and my ex girlfriend also normalized that kind of
behavior more and more until it got out of hand towards the end of our relationship.

So it's very relatable which is a great achievement itself, but it wasn't one of the greatest film of all time as I  thought before.