Blue Valentine (2010)

Blue Valentine is a 2010 romance drama film written and directed by Derek Cianfrance that premiered in competition at the 26th Sundance Film Festival. It was written by Cianfrance and Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis, and stars Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. The film was scored by Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear.

Plot:

The film depicts a married couple, Dean Pereira (Gosling) and Cindy Heller (Williams), shifting back and forth in time between their courtship and the dissolution of their marriage several years later.

Dean is a young high school dropout, working for a New York City moving company. Cindy is a premed student living with her unhappy parents and caring for her grandmother in Pennsylvania. They meet by chance and fall deeply in love in a matter of weeks despite the disapproval of Cindy's father. They rush into marriage after discovering Cindy is pregnant from a previous boyfriend, Bobby (Mike Vogel). Dean agrees to raise Cindy's daughter as his own and remains faithful to his word. Before the wedding Bobby, unaware of Cindy's pregnancy, finds and brutally assaults Dean at his job with the help of two friends.

The story of their courtship is intercut with one disastrous weekend near the presumed end of their marriage. Dean is painting houses while Cindy works as a nurse and they care for their young daughter, who is not Dean's child, in rural Pennsylvania. In the hope of resurrecting their troubled relationship, Dean brings Cindy to a tacky motel where they only fight more, and Cindy is called away early in the morning to work at the hospital. Dean shows up at the hospital angry, leading to a violent altercation which seems to make divorce inevitable. Dean desperately tries to console Cindy into giving their relationship another chance due to fear of raising their daughter in a broken home, Cindy argues that their home is already broken. Dean decides to give Cindy space and leaves, though his daughter runs after him coaxing him to stay. As Cindy grabs their daughter, Dean walks off into the distance during a fireworks show.