Blue Valentine

Well, 2010, the year of cinema sadness continues. "Blue Valentine" is a good film that will make you want to belt down bourbon and listen to Billie Holiday. If that sounds appealing to you, then this film that deconstructs a failing relationship, is just what the doctor ordered, Really. It's a very good film. Sigh.
"Blue Valentine" cuts back and forth in time to look at a young couple played with ferocious honesty by Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. In their older parental phase, we see them at the end of a downward spiral, trying last ditch efforts to keep their failing marriage afloat, a youthful version of George and Martha from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe", except here it's the male character (Gosling) that verbalizes the marital frustration. He badgers Williams verbally, almost to the point of abuse, because he knows that any real communication will eventually lead to the inevitable. Williams, by far the more intelligent of the two, broods in silence, with any attempt at honest communication rebuffed.
But the poignancy of the piece comes in flashback, as we see the birth of their love affair, two likable people suited to each other, falling in love. A scene where Gosling sings "You Only Hurt the One You Love" to an impromptu tap dance by Williams is heartbreaking in its sweetness, mainly because you know where it's leading.
Honest is the best word to describe this film, and if you have ever had a love affair that became something else, you may well recognize parts of your own story in theirs. It's the strength of the film.
This film is NC-17 because the sex looks like real people having the kind of sex that real people have. That's fine. It's a film meant for adults. It just points out that the ratings board is a bunch of misguided juveniles who probably should get laid more.
Addendum: The MPAA relented and gave the film an R rating. Still, the MPAA is rapidly becoming archaic, useless.