Blu-Ray Review
13 Aug 2011
Blue Valentine: A Blu-Ray Review
Blue Valentine is a film that perfectly captures the flavor of rural life in Pennsylvania, and for that reason, I sort of hate it. This opinion will almost certainly prove controversial, since the movie has earned critical raves, primarily for its stellar leading performances by Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. (No argument there.) But great performances which are not anchored by a good screenplay hold no sway over me, and Blue Valentine is a film badly in search of a message.
The story, such as it is, revolves around a young couple (Gosling and Williams) and their daughter, trying to eke out a meager blue collar existence. Life is hard for them. Employment and finances are difficult. They fight about their conflicting parenting styles. A potential love triangle rears its head, but not really. The narrative jumps back and forth throughout the couple's relationship, allowing us to see both the origins and ramifications of the conflict.
Somehow, It's less interesting than it sounds.
Gosling and Williams are both really trying. But unfortunately, Blue Valentine is a film that studies and analyzes the relationship of its leading characters, without ever coming to any conclusions about them. Although it dances back and forth in time, covering both the birth and decline of a difficult relationship, it does not enlighten. There is no real story for us to observe, no narrative on which to hook the viewer. It's an oddly clinical film, much better at demonstrating good filmmaking technique than exploring underlying emotions.
A pity. We might have had something worth watching otherwise.
Enough about the movie! What about the Blu-Ray?
Blue Valentine appears to have been shot in high definition video. The 1080p anamorphic transfer (presented in the film's original 1.66:1 theatrical aspect ratio) is a tad soft, but not unpleasantly so. The color palette is intentionally muted, and this transfer captures the characters' drab existence in equally drab visuals. That's not a slam, by the way: this is clearly the director's intention.
English audio is presented via a front-heavy lossless DTS 5.1 track.
Special features include an audio commentary track with filmmaker Derek Cianfrance and his editor, Jim Helton. A 13-minute making-of documentary is offered, along with nearly twenty minutes of deleted scenes, and a 3-minute home movie, shot on set during the film's production.
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Comments
@euphoriafish 14 Aug 2011 03:06
The message I got from it was that all relationships follow this arc, and I did find it sort of novel to put the arc together out of an unordered sequence of events. Like memories, when you look back at a relationship, are remembered out of order but you analyze them to make sense of the failed relationship.
By drawing no conclusions, the film leaves the characters undefined. They could be anybody. However, in lack of character definition, I just assign them to the actors who play them, end result being I hate Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. I really hated this movie.
caroche 15 Aug 2011 10:38
I saw it with Paul. He liked it more than me or Tandy. Saying that, Mildred kept laughing at the bad bits.