Blue Valentine vs A Woman Under The Influence

Dean meets Cindy in a nursing home. He’s a mover, and has just finished settling an old guy named Walter into his new room. Cindy is visiting her grandmother. Cindy wants to be a doctor, and already has a boyfriend. Dean doesn’t have a girlfriend, and wants Cindy to be his. Otherwise, he doesn’t want to be anything else. Hasn’t thought about it. They have another meeting, and a cute date. He plays ukulele, she dances on the sidewalk. They have a couple scares, and her parents aren’t totally welcoming, but they fall in love. Dean and Cindy are so fresh and good looking, you could only cast, say, Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams to play them.

Dean and Cindy have been married for a while. She’s gained a little weight, his hairline is moving. She’s a nurse; he paints houses. They have a sweet little daughter, and a messy home in the middle of nowhere. They fight all the time, usually about Dean’s lack of ambition and responsibility. That he’s lost potential. About his drinking. They go away for a weekend, and it’s a disaster. Not sexy, or fun, or even friendly. Cindy gets called into work while she’s still drunk. When Dean comes to, he follows her, and they fight. Her coworkers know about Dean. Stuff like this has happened before, I guess.

Blue Valentine was directed by Derek Cianfrance, after a decade of preparation, much of which included Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. It’s a quiet, powerful movie, a look at a couple at the first flush of love, and years later—but not so many years later—when the love is gone, or abandoned, or maybe forgotten altogether. It might sound like a gimmick, but it’s not. Imagine Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, minus any trace of science fiction. Blue Valentine spans just the right number of years (probably six? Seven?) for the heartbreak to be palpable. Any sooner, and the young love wouldn’t be taken seriously. Any longer, and you might wonder what went wrong, and why it didn’t happen sooner. Cindy is exhausted, at home and at work. Dean loves her, but isn’t reliable, drinks too much, and has a bad temper. Blue Valentine sounds like a downer, I’m sure, like so many of the movies I recommend. But I can tell you I did not enjoy a movie more this year.

Blue Valentine has the right actors, neither ever better; a sensitive, eagle-eyed director (The details on this thing. Jeez.  Walter’s nursing home room alone looks like it contains a notebook full of character notes); and a careful, believable script full of moments, tiny and huge, that place these characters’ lives beyond the bounds of the movie. How old are they when everything turns to shit? Twenty-six? Twenty-seven? They have their lives ahead of them, whether they think so or not, and you won’t feel their story close just because the credits roll. It’s difficult to praise actors when the characters feel this real. Authenticity doesn’t always translate into a nice Oscar reel. But Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are giving specific, deep-down performances in Blue Valentine. I’d like to see them together in something else some day.

Word has it the making of Blue Valentine was set up so Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams lived as much like a couple as possible, building memories and starting fights. It shows. I don’t know if this is quite how John Cassavetes made movies, but last month I watched A Woman Under the Influence, and I thought about it throughout Blue Valentine.

Gena Rowlands is Mabel, a wife and mother with some major problems. She drinks a lot, so much that she doesn’t recognize drinking buddies, before or after bringing them home. She never knows anyone’s name, even moments after meeting them. She’s upbeat in good company, to the point of mania. She’s better with her husband (Peter Falk), but unstable and prone to outbursts. She’s terribly lonely, and can’t fill her day at all. Until her kids are home, it’s like she doesn’t feel like she exists. Mabel’s manic highs can be fun at times, but she’s so impulsive and insistent, she’s becoming hard to live with and trust.

A Woman Under the Influence, like Blue Valentine, is split into two timelines. In A Woman Under the Influence, we get the lives of Mabel’s family prior to and following a stint in a mental institution. There’s a party when she returns, but everyone avoids talking about why. Is she better after being institutionalized? Good question.

If every movie I saw inspired me to watch another Cassavetes movie, I’d be a happy guy. I loved A Woman Under the Influence. Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk live and breathe these roles. For the duration of A Woman Under the Influence, you’ll believe they’re really a couple, and you’ll root for them to sort things out. I figure Dean and Cindy can make a go of it, alone or together, and maybe find some happiness. Mabel might not be able to survive on her own, if her husband were to leave. Thankfully, that’s a question neither movie answers. As much as I relished the exquisite agony of these great actors, I prefer their characters alive. I have enough trouble sleeping as it is.

Blue Valentine: A

A Woman Under the Influence: A