Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actresss 2010

The Contenders:

Natalie Portman: Black Swan (winner)
Michelle Williams: Blue Valentine
Annette Bening: The Kids are All Right
Nicole Kidman: Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence: Winter’s Bone

Blue is the Coldest Color, Too

Film: Blue Valentine
Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on rockin’ flatscreen.

The January NetFlix streaming purge ended with the loss of Blue Valentine, a film that I ended up watching specifically to make sure that I got it watched before it disappeared. I can’t honestly say that this was one I wanted to watch today, which made this more of a forced watch out of necessity than anything else. I’m not always in the mood for films that make me hate life, and Blue Valentine is that sort of film.

Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) are a married couple with a young daughter named Frankie (Faith Wladyka). Dean very much gives the impression of being the fun parent while Cindy is the responsible one. This is not a false impression. As the film goes on, we learn that Cindy has a responsible job as a nurse and that Dean, a high school dropout, paints houses and has worked at unskilled odd jobs his whole life. Cindy and Frankie are the center of Dean’s world while Cindy longs for something more or something different, or really just something.