Why So Blue???

W Magazine

For my 27th birthday, my friends planned a big night o' celebration. We met at a fab dim sum restaurant, Ping Pong, in Chinatown for drinks and dinner (definitely recommend the Lemongrass and Lime cocktail!) and then headed to the E Street Theater to catch an indie flick. I had mentioned once to one of my girls the new Ryan Gosling film, Blue Valentine. I had heard about the NC-17 vs. R rating controversy and wanted to see what it was all about, but I didn't think this was the movie they would choose for my birthday fête.

It was a decent love story, but far from a feel-good movie. Ryan Gosling is rather easy on the eyes, so it made the movie easy to watch. At times, it felt like you were sitting in the living room of a couple who was arguing and was a little uncomfortable. My friends had a lot more trouble with the film than I did. I could see the controversial areas of the movie that the MPAA had issues with. There were several very graphic sex scenes, but were more "animalistic" than sexy. As if that wasn't enough to make the audience tense up, the movie came very close to hitting on one of the most controversial topics ever, abortion. You could see and hear people in the theater begin to squirm in their seats. But, all in all I still loved the movie. I thought it was a much more "real" story of two people's lives together, as opposed to a typical "Dirty Dancing" style love story.

In the end, Ryan Goslings bedroom eyes were enough to get through the 90 minutes of the film. As what usually happens at indie theaters, the previews get you pumped for your next visit to the theater. We made plans for the animated shorts festival in a few weeks.