BLUE VALENTINE

Ryan Gosling is an amazing actor in addition to being very good-looking with a lean muscled body.

This is a story (told in seamless flashbacks) of the beginning and the crumbling of a relationship. I was going to say
ending but the movie's last scene is ambiguous and because i didn't want him to be rejected/divorced by Michelle Williams (who plays his wife) i interpreted the ending as more of a rough patch in the relationship.

I read that the director had Gosling and Williams live together (during the day) so they could relate to each other more naturally and it worked. All the dialogue, the looks, the touches felt totally un-Hollywood - movie. The conversations between them were not splotches of glib clever dialogue but real talk.

I wasn't very clear, though, about why she was so unhappy with him. After much thought and discussion with Bill, i think it was because he was not very motivated or ambitious. (plus he liked to drink beer quite a bit). He was quite content to make enough money (he was a house painter) to support the household (she was a nurse or aide or medical technician) and to just be able to be with her and their daughter.

He was a great wonderful affectionate father. but he would play games with the daughter (who loved him to death) and sip on his beer while his wife would be packing lunches and getting her dressed for school and cleaning up the house.

OK, the more i'm thinking about this again the clearer their marital troubles are appearing.

If she doesn't want him, I'll take Ryan on.