Blue Valentine. This is a movie where I attempted to see who was most to blame for the break-up: the husband or the wife and I came to the opinion that neither was to blame for the pain of their marriage. Of course, the problem is that not enough information is provided. You get glimpses of the start of their relationship along with the final couple days. There isn't much in between, which is frustrating but perhaps that is why my opinion is correct: neither is really to blame.
You do get some hints of what is happening:
1. You have two individuals who aren't perfectly matched in terms of class. Dean doesn't even have a high school degree. Cindy has a degree in nursing. We also know that Dean came from a broken home and that his father was a janitor. We know that Cindy, even though her family was highly dysfunctional, probably had a more middle class upbringing.
2. There are clues towards the end of the movie that Cindy considers Dean manipulative.
3. We also know via their stay at the hotel that Cindy doesn't provide much physical comfort to Dean.
4. We also know that Cindy wishes that Dean would do more with his life -- achieve his full potential.
5. We do know; however, that both have been faithful to each other even though that faithfulness doesn't add up to much. Cindy has the better opportunity in the marriage to cheat. We know there are two guys (and perhaps more if the movie revealed more) that wouldn't have minded having an affair with Cindy. This right there might have moved Cindy towards thoughts of divorce as it is always greener on the other side.
In the end, we're left with a bleak look at the collapse of a marriage.
No comments:
Post a Comment