In Cinemas: Blue Valentine

Although Blue Valentine's scenes alternate between the start and the end of a relationship, we rarely, respectively, feel particularly hopeful or particularly dismal. The jarring nature of this alternation instead produces a muddy, complicated effect which makes this indie drama a lot more interesting than it first appears.

We begin with the dismal. The school run is the choice of opening gambit for director/co-writer Derek Cianfrance. We notice that between the clearing away of dishes and ushering out of the front door, that the central couple barely speak to each other. It's an unusually extended scene for the film – probably the longest focus on the one extreme we're treated to. And emotions don't seem too bruised – Michelle William's Cindy could just be upset at the disappearance – and subsequent demise – of the family pet, for which she's printing out dozens of 'missing' posters at work.

It's only when we move into the opposite end of the relationship, where the two first meet – she hesitatingly flirts, he pours on the charm – that we realize what a difference this marriage made. And the extent of the couple's problems and coping strategies are slowly revealed until the incredibly sad pivotal episode in which Ryan Gosling's Dean makes a last ditch attempt at romance by booking them into the unknowingly ironic choice of the 'future room' at an out of town hotel.

The film then, is a constant process of cross-referencing and character illumination by deduction and scene adjacency. BV is the hip, and inevitably less subtle, American cousin of Francois Ozon's 5x2. But with its slightly abrasive and very occasionally overwrought edges, it possesses a frank, sometimes uncomfortably intimate nature. The film's sex is never unnecessary, but surprisingly confrontational. The emotions bleed out out the screen thanks to the heavy use of close up.

And throughout this emotional warzone, we get two very fine performances. Ryan Gosling shouts, sweats and cries as Dean, the soulful handyman. Michelle Williams sulks, internalises then explodes as the unhappy nurse Cindy. Without them, the movie would be an unusual and admirably honest experience. With these actors, it's essential.