DVD: Blue Valentine

Blue Valentine takes place in two different time frames – the “now” (shot on Red One, which endows even the most intimate of scenes with an almost unsettling widescreen look), and the “then” scenes on Super 16 mm. They are interwoven in what appears to be random fashion, but which on closer inspection provides an almost perfectly choreographed explanation on why this most touching – and beautifully related – love story breaks down and disintegrates so utterly.

Was all the effort – which resulted in both Williams and Gosling being nominated for an Academy Award – really worth it? Definitely yes. Like a trailer-trash version of Love Story as re-imagined by a latter-day John Cassavetes, it contains both one of the most poignant and memorable falling-in-love moments in recent cinema (and charmingly spontaneous courtship scenes), and one the most painful, pathetic it’s-all-over scenes (shot in a spectacularly kitsch space-age motel suite called The Future Room). The extras are perhaps less memorable, containing a few deleted scenes, an unremarkable Q&A session, an unusually self-referential audio commentary centring on the impeccable indie and slacker credentials of those involved in making the film; we learn why the dog is called Megan: friends of one of the writers had a retriever named Megan, and he has a sister named Megan. Hmm, is that so?

Watch the trailer for Blue Valentine