Little invested in characters of 'Blue Valentine'

Director: Derek Cianfrance

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams

Cert: 16

What do we want, expect, from love? The big question is addressed – if not fully answered, as if it could ever be – in this examination of the birth and death of the marriage of Dean (Gosling) and Cindy (Williams) who, like all of us, begin the journey with high hopes and end it with shattered illusions.

Cindy at one point wonders if feelings just disappear and, of course, they often do, and here we act as witnesses to that shattering over a period of time, revisited in a series of often frustrating flashbacks.

The problem with a film that means to be a serious, moving, detailed and layered look at love and companionship is that our feelings for the central characters does, quite simply, just disappear.

Star Rating: 2/5