Blue Valentine
The scenes in the "past" when Dean and Cindy are falling in love were shot first, in three weeks. After this, Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams spent a month together in a rented house to age themselves in preparation for the "present" scenes. They spent a lot of their time grocery shopping, cooking dinner and learning to pick fights with each other.,After the argument at Cindy's workplace, Dean's necklace is visibly broken with the chain hanging down the front of his shirt. In the next shot, the necklace is intact again.,Dean: In my experience, the prettier a girl is, the more nuts she is, which makes you insane. You're probably nutty, coo-coo crazy. It's not your fault, you know? Just like, everybody treats you different, you know? Like, you make jokes and they're not funny, but people laugh anyway. That's gotta make you nuts.
Cindy: I like how you can compliment and insult somebody at the same time, in equal measure.,The initial credits, showing major cast and crew, play over a montage of stills from the film and clips of fireworks.,Featured in At the Movies: Summer Special 2010/11 (2010),Unicorn Tears
Written and Performed by Ryan Gosling,Surprisingly well done. I was a bit skeptical at first, but as I traveled my way through this story, it made more sense than many other attempts to capture this concept and present it well. Michelle Williams really shines here, it may be her best role yet, at least that I'm aware of.

The key point here is that is an anatomy of a marriage that has dissolved over time, becoming increasingly irrelevant to the wife, and evermore difficult for the husband to comprehend or connect with what's going on with his wife.

I've seen this before, in real life. Sometimes, marriages just come apart over time, even if they started out with the best of intentions and all the chemistry that can be imagined. It just happens . . . people change over time, and often, not in sync with each other. There's no real "bad guy" in the scenario portrayed . . . just the realities of how people drift apart, to the point of no return. Trust me on this one, this does happen.

This film may not be for everyone, but for those who can relate with this type of story, this is probably one of the best attempts yet which delivers a reasonably realistic depiction of what this can be like.,