During the two hours of the whole film, as an audience, the mood is constantly upside down in the facial expressions with the corners of the mouth raised and the brows tightened, which is really tormenting.
The film uses constant flashbacks to tell how two people who love each other meet, fall in love, and start a family. And the other side of the movie is the real family life that happens almost within 24 hours. The director skillfully moved the storyline of the two ends from the bland to the climax at the same time. How deeply in love with each other in the past is doomed to how painful the separation will be now. Two lines, culminating in a tearful embrace of the two after the church wedding and a tearful embrace of the two in the kitchen in real life. All the beautiful love in the memories, so seemingly parallel but silent, unknowingly, even a bit inexplicably sentenced to death.
In these 24 hours of reality, except for the quarrel caused by the dog running out and being hit to death and meeting an old lover in the supermarket, everything was almost flat. The memories neither gave any key points about what happened to them, nor did they explain any life after marriage, and they came directly to the reality today. In 24 hours, no matter the old feelings, memories or the feelings that are still alive today are still so hot, but they can't warm up the cold status quo.
I can't help but put myself in to analyze the characters. If it were me, at that age and in the family background at that time, I met a boy with such an appearance and heart, who loved me so much and made me feel so happy, and I was helplessly pregnant again. Marrying him was almost the only and most touching result at the time. This is also the most desperate part of the film. This story does not even have other possibilities of what if and what if, there is no point to ask what would happen if it didn't work out at the time, because all the memories lead to an indisputable ending, that is, the two Individuals get married. So when Dean reports to Cindy whether the child is his or not, Let's do it, we naturally think that should be the beginning of happiness, because a good boy is willing to protect a girl he loves. At this moment, the director told you in a blunt manner, otherwise, it would definitely be happily ever after.
Cindy was so fragile and petite and unloving in all the memories that she needed someone to protect. Her former boyfriend practiced wrestling, which also implied that she likes the strong. Especially when this former wrestler reappeared in the supermarket many years later, dressed in a hat and jumper, showing a sense of high spirit; on the other hand, in reality, Cindy is either dressed in sloppy casual clothes or a hospital uniform, and her hair is always full. It was tied behind his head, looking like he was tortured by life. Although Dean was sitting next to him, although his mentality was still like a child, wearing a T-shirt and a necklace, he was very happy to see the turning bed, but it was difficult to hide the backward hairline. , the anxiety of constantly smoking, and the state of life of drinking early in the morning. Even if it doesn't mean anything, women are so uncomfortable because of such little things. As if they were torturing their own lives, not themselves.
So, Cindy, who is no longer vulnerable, doesn't seem to need Dean anymore, although at the same time she doesn't know what kind of life she wants, so when she tries to communicate with Dean, the conversation can't happen. The film also doesn't tell us how unmotivated Dean is, he loves her, and he values family, which are all good traits, but because she's dissatisfied with the status quo and doesn't know what to want, it all becomes like his appearance. A cowardly expression for not seeking superiority.
So when you see this, you can see that what the director actually wants to say is that even if a good boy was willing to accept a good girl unconditionally, even if the boy and the girl used to love each other, love alone still can't support the real life, or can't be saved after escaping. The dog that was hit to death still can't make the hair not bald, still can't make the breast not sag, still can't make the man become what the woman wants, because the woman doesn't know what the man she loves should look like before she is satisfied .
So we found the first if in the film, if the boy did not go to the old man's home to help the old man move, and he decorated it according to the old man's mind not so lovingly, if they did not know each other, there would be no later pain, It's just that if this one appears, it completely negates the whole story.
So we found that as long as men are satisfied with a seemingly stable life after marriage, while women still miss their unfulfilled dreams, life will be like the couple in "Revolutionary Road", and love can't conquer anything in the end.
Dean, who treats love almost perfectly in the film, sang "you'll always hurt the ones you love" to Cindy for the first time, not only confirming his own remarks, men are sometimes more romantic than women, believe in love at first sight, and predict Sexually tells us that once a woman has a reality over a man and only cares if you have a decent job, the ending is so inescapable. Even two people who were born in broken families since childhood, do not want to repeat the same mistakes and have no other way to go, because it is the only way they are familiar with.
However, I don't want to give the final definition of love in this way. I don't think that love should be so youthful, and only the only way out is the desperate separation when it is exhausted, and I don't think marriage is the end of love. Writing this, I don't even think this movie is about love.
I suddenly remembered the phrase "Every Parent Screwed up their children." Every parent screwed up their children. Everyone can't decide their origin, nor how their parents raise them. No matter how good our parents are, we will always grow up feeling that we have been neglected, belittled, or that our belief in life has been shaken by the actions of our parents. At this time, love and material from the outside world become a source that can strengthen oneself. However, the ever-changing world and the constant inner insecurity can always cause these energies from the outside world to be slowly exhausted. Once there is no replenishment, life will be in crisis.
Seeking love, this seemingly normal behavior, became the cause of tragedy here, thinking that as long as someone else loved me, I would be safe, but in the end I could only push into a deeper abyss.
I will end this film review with a recent Weibo post I posted, "The power of love is not that it makes you gaunt, but that once you get emotional, the big labyrinth in your heart full of traps and disguise spreads out immediately. With firm belief and full affirmation of oneself, it is easy to fall into a never-ending cycle. It seems that all tragedies are related to fear or unwillingness to admit reality, and ultimately fall back to one's own denial of oneself. Loving others Before that, you still have to negotiate with yourself and love yourself first.”
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