Amazon.com: Blue Valentine: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, John Doman, Mike Vogel: Amazon Instant Video

Blue Valentine

Oscar-nominees Ryan Gosling (THE NOTEBOOK) and Michelle Williams (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) star in BLUE VALENTINE, a story of love found and love lost told in moments past and present.

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams
Directed by: Derek Cianfrance
Runtime: 1 hour 52 minutes
Release year: 2010
Studio: The Weinstein Company

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Synopsis: Oscar-nominees Ryan Gosling (THE NOTEBOOK) and Michelle Williams (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) star in BLUE VALENTINE, a story of love found and love lost told in moments past and present.

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams

Supporting actors: John Doman, Mike Vogel, Faith Wladyka

Directed by: Derek Cianfrance

Genre: Drama, Romance

Runtime: 1 hour 52 minutes

Captions and Subtitles: Details

Release year: 2010

Studio: The Weinstein Company

MPAA Rating: Rated NC-17 for a scene of explicit sexual content (original rating)

ASIN: B00503B9XE

Rights & Requirements

Rental rights: 48 hour viewing period. Details

Purchase rights: Stream instantly and download to 2 locations. Details

Format: Amazon Instant Video (streaming online video and digital download)

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3.7 out of 5 stars

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3.7 out of 5 stars

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136 of 149 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Contemporary Romance About Breaking Up January 15, 2011

By K. Harris HALL OF FAMETOP 10 REVIEWER

Format:DVD

Perhaps more than any other film in 2010, I have eagerly anticipated the arrival of "Blue Valentine." After superlative press at Sundance, the film fell into the most ridiculous and unnecessary scandal of the year when the MPAA branded the movie with a NC-17 rating. A film filled with grown-up emotions and intimacies, "Blue Valentine" is an unlikely target for such a rating (in an era filled with movies of extreme violence, gore, and much more nudity) other than the fact that "Blue Valentine" feels so extraordinarily real. Luckily, the rating was rightfully overturned so the picture could enjoy a wider release and the benefits of a more extensive advertising campaign. "Blue Valentine" is a sophisticated and smart entertainment for adult audiences brought to realistic fruition by the stellar Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. Naturalistic and utterly believable, rarely has a film been able to dissect a relationship with such savvy attention to detail.

You might have heard that "Blue Valentine" is a story about the dissolution of a relationship, about a couple growing apart. I would contend, however, that it is instead a contemporary love story. Set in alternate timelines, "Blue Valentine" charts Gosling and Williams both at the beginning of their courtship as well as when their marriage is nearing an end. Shot in an easy improvised style, the earlier moments have charming tenderness while the later segments have a quiet poignancy and sadness. Instead of opting for big scenes and pinpointing singular causes, "Blue Valentine" simply has our couple drifting down different paths. Neither is the particular cause of the estrangement, but Williams pulls back emotionally as Gosling holds on frantically.... Read more ›

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63 of 73 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 stars for one of the best acted films of the year January 17, 2011

By RMurray847 VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

BLUE VALENTINE is a low budget film, telling us about the beginning and end of a marriage. It stars Ryan Gosling & Michelle Williams. The movie shows us "now" over the space of just a couple of days, as we see this couple along with their roughly 5 year old child, going through mundane tasks and the final arguments that lead to their split. The film also bounces back to the few weeks or months from their first meeting until the day they get married. We see them about 5 or 6 years younger, na�ve & sweetly in-love. When we bounce to the present, we seem them harried, worried and barely able to tolerate each other.

Some would say that the film makes a broad statement on how love or marriage can go from sweet to sour. How we sabotage our happiness. How difficult it is to make a happy marriage (or for the true cynics, how IMPOSSIBLE it is).

I took NO global message from the film. It is powerful, but it is very small in scope. This is because the filmmaker Derek Cianfrance has made a deeply SPECIFIC movie. Gosling & Williams give VERY lived-in performances where we very much feel we are looking at a very particular couple going through very particular joys and disappointments. We feel like we're getting a very intimate peek into what makes this particular couple tick. Thus, it becomes nearly impossible to extrapolate the film to the general subject of "marriage." This is not a failing, per se...but I've certainly read comments on the film that imply that very thing. That is absurd, quite frankly. Each marriage has its own rhythms, pulses, occurrences & secrets. The relationship depicted here feels real, because it is so specific. It also feels small.

To me, the main reason to see this film is for the performances. Both stars do their best work here......by a long way. Williams has given some nice performances in the past (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, WENDY & LUCY)...but often her performances have been of women more or less drained by life. Williams, particularly in the early scenes, is full of undirected ambition and spirit. She's eager to get away from her terrible homelife and is smart enough to have career ambitions, even though this is not something that runs in her family. She's very close to her grandmother, but terrorized by her parents, who have vicious arguments that she must endure. She makes lousy choices in men. Gosling is new to the big city (NYC) and na�ve. He's poorly educated, and not terribly ambitious. He's not seen anything for himself other than getting away from his own sad family situation. He's a terribly nice guy (his early scene with a senior citizen he doesn't even know is touching, heartbreaking and puts us forever on his side)...but has little to offer other than devoted, puppy-dog love. The two have a passionate and convincing early romance...but when they take the step to marriage, we also see that from the first day, the seeds of end of the marriage have already been planted. I won't give specifics...but let's just say that not enough of their paths are converging for this thing to really have a shot. For them, marriage is an escape from demons...and we see they are bringing some of the demons right along with them.

In the later scenes, as they fight and old bitterness comes out...we are able to pretty much guess just how the five years since the wedding day have gone by. Gosling has spent his time in menial jobs, showing no inclination to move up. Williams, because she now has a family, has put her ambitions on the back burner. She's a nurse, but she's also by far the primary breadwinner. The two seem to have a comfortable lower middle-class life...but their paths have diverged (Gosling is barely even on a path.)

I suspect the film wants us to feel good and bad for each of them in equal measure. To not take sides...but to simply feel bad for both and to wish they could find a way to get it together. However, my experience and that of my wife, was that we very much took sides (both with the same person)...and this somewhat diminishes the power of the film. It's not meant to be a good vs. bad movie...but it sort of ends up that way.

This is not a happy film...but there's plenty of wry humor. (And if you've heard about the graphic sex that initially got this film an NC-17...you'll likely scratch your head at that. The sex in BLACK SWAN was far more "shocking.") It's also not as depressing as perhaps you've heard. Again, because we're watching a film that ISN'T about our own marriage. Our marriage is very different. We see this couple and feel for them...but we don't sit there and think, "OMG, this is SO much like my marriage." (Thank goodness.) Granted, this is a very personal response from me...others may feel differently.

You should absolutely see the film, though. It features two of the very best American performances this year. And despite seeming like we're just watching home movies, it is actually very artfully photographed. And as a bonus, it features the most outrageous cheap hotel room in film history. (Don't ask...just see for yourself.) Read more ›

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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless piece of human heartache January 27, 2011

By B. Gordon

Format:DVD

WARNING - SPOILER ALERT!!

It's so rare to be thrilled with a movie these days. Thrilled in the sense that the film not only has great acting but the storyline, simple as it maybe, is so engaging, and moving, that you can't help but be affected. You're invited into the lives of two individuals and you want to try and understand why it doesn't work out. After all, living in the United States, where half of all marriages end in divorce, how many young couples make the right decision to marry?

Does anyone in the world remember Juno? The most overrated piece of tripe I've ever seen. And you recall how ridiculous the entire abortion sequence was?

Then you go see a film like Blue Valentine, and suddenly you are brought back down to REALITY, and you witness how painful an experience an abortion can be and with it (even an abortive attempt), you physically feel the emotional spikes of both individuals and you say to yourself, is this a movie? Or is this actually a couple somewhere in a small town in Pennsylvania today going through the exact same experience, right now?

Yes, Gosling and Williams brilliantly capture their characters raison d'etre for living and it's difficult to lay blame on either of them when trying to come to terms with the dissolution of their relationship. In some ways, I was more upset at Williams character because she shows her true colors by marrying Gosling's character even though it's very questionable how much she truly loved him. Ultimately, you come away with the conclusion that she married him because of her unwanted pregnancy.

Goesling's character doesn't possess ambition. He's satisfied with the status-quo and his lot in life. He's a painter, with a daughter, and a wife whom he adores.... Read more ›

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5.0 out of 5 stars Hits too close to many-a home

Loved how this captured the mundane sort of detachment that undermines a great portion of marriages and other relationships. Great acting, great writing, great editing. Read more

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3.0 out of 5 stars Blue Valentine review

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