Emotionally draining portrait of a couple in crisis. Dean books a romantic night in a hotel in an attempt to save his faltering marriage. In touching vignettes both past and present, we see a love story unfold through the good and the not so good times. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are absorbing as the pair at the center of it all. The characters are truthfully presented and exposed, which makes their situation so involving. Most audiences will side with Dean as the script is told more from his point of view than hers. This isn’t necessarily a flaw, but it makes it harder for us to understand Cindy’s plight. The events however feel like real life. What causes a marriage to fail is often not a question of right or wrong, but of people who want different things. And sometimes, what seems charming in the beginning becomes irritating over time. That’s not always reasonable, but neither is the real world. This drama explores the full range of human feeling and it does it in under 2 hours. A brilliant achievement for a film.
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This is the type of movie that had me talking about it, hours later. So many points of view can given about it. Was very well acted. I agree, it leaned more towards Ryan’s characters, point of view. Worth the watch.
Hey Mark – A) Dying to see this when it opens in Portland 1/21 (among other films that day!) 🙂 B) Wanted to let you know that my lack of time to maintain my blog may be going from not much to really not much because of two opportunities through my school – one is a projectionist job at the student theater that is a minimum 20 hour a week commitment and pays 2 bucks more than my Safeway job – the other is the opportunity to teach a course on Faith & Cinema I’ve proposed as part of the student taught course Chiron Studies program for Spring 2011! 🙂 I’m particularly excited about both these opportunities…but I’m afraid it will suck up all my time. Just letting you know if I seem to disappear it’s just that I’m working nonstop in the next few months…
Saw this yesterday (it opened a week earlier in Portland than originally anticipated)… Great film – one of 2010’s very best. I agree it’s emotionally draining and challenging and even borderline repulsive at times, but the stars give such emotionally naked performances and it is so utterly true in a dramatic sense that in a way I was more wrapped up in it than even RABBIT HOLE :O I could imagine this being one of those alternate universes the kid in that film was talking about…Yet another sad version though 🙁 Can’t say enough good things about this