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Blue Valentine
Dean and Cindy live a quiet life in a modest neighborhood. They appear to have the world at their feet at the outset of the relationship. However, his lack of ambition and her retreat into self-absorption cause potentially irreversible cracks in their marriage.
2010 · Directed by Derek Cianfrance · 112 min · Drama · Romance · Screenplay in the scene database · 31 frames
Tagline
A Love Story.
Plot
Five-year-old Frankie wakes up her dad Dean. She cannot find their family dog, Megan, and together they look for her outside the Pennsylvania family home, with Dean reassuring Frankie. The gate to Megan's area outside appears to have been left open, implying the dog may have escaped. Dean and Frankie wake up Dean's wife, Cindy, who appears exhausted and annoyed. She reminds the two that Frankie has to get ready for school and cannot be late. While Cindy gets Frankie dressed, gives her breakfast, and gets herself ready for her job, Dean focuses on making Frankie laugh and rebuffs the instant oatmeal breakfast Cindy made for her.
Later that day, Cindy is shown as a nurse at a clinic where her boss, Dr. Feinberg, had just offered her to join him at his new clinic in another city, and inquires if she's discussed moving with her family. Appearing exhausted, she says she hasn't. Meanwhile, Dean is shown to be painting house interiors for work, later driving around while drinking a beer. While driving to an event at Frankie's school, Cindy finds Megan dead by the roadside. She arrives late to the event. Dean is already there; when she tells Dean what she found, he blames her for leaving the gate open while she silently breaks down in tears. At home, Dean buries Megan and breaks down and Cindy comforts him. Later, despite Cindy's reluctance because she is scheduled as "on-call" for her job the next day, Dean insists on a getaway at a motel two hours away to "get drunk and make love". They drop-off Frankie with Cindy's dad. Dean does not enter the house; when Cindy asks why, he states he cannot smoke near Cindy's father's oxygen tank. While driving to the motel, Cindy stops by a liquor store and has an awkward encounter with an ex-boyfriend, Bobby, which causes her and Dean to argue when she returns to the car.
Flashbacks reveal that Dean was a hopeless romantic high school dropout, working for a moving company in Brooklyn. Cindy was once an aspiring doctor studying pre-med while living with her parents and caring for her grandmother in Pennsylvania. Her parents have a volatile marriage, with her dad verbally abusing her mother. She is dating Bobby, a fellow student, and one day they have sex during which he ejaculates inside her without her consent. He later brings flowers to her at her parents' house but gets angry when she doesn't accept his apology, causing Cindy to shut him out.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Cami Delavigne, Joey Curtis, Derek Cianfrance
- Cinematography: Andrij Parekh
- Edited by: Jim Helton, Ron Patane
- Music: Grizzly Bear
- Production design: Inbal Weinberg
- Produced by: Lynette Howell Taylor, Alex Orlovsky, Jamie Patricof
Cast
- Ryan Gosling as Dean
- Michelle Williams as Cindy
- John Doman as Jerry
- Mike Vogel as Bobby
- Ben Shenkman as Dr. Feinberg
- Jen Jones as Gramma
- Maryann Plunkett as Glenda
- Faith Wladyka as Frankie
- Marshall Johnson as Marshall
- James Benatti as Jamie
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Cottage Industries, Incentive Filmed Entertainment, Silverwood Films, Hunting Lane Films
- Budget: $1,000,000
- Box office: $15,440,333
- Themes: depression, dancing, nurse, pennsylvania, usa, love at first sight, pregnancy, classroom, marriage, bridge, dysfunctional family
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