Blue Valentine begins with a morning scene typical of a young family. He, slightly balding, is amusing their young child whilst she, with that tired and exasperated look seen on the faces of those who live with regrets, is trying to get both herself and her daughter ready for the day ahead. The daughter is concerned about their missing dog. During the course of the day, the fate of the dog is discovered, and this, combined with a chance encounter with one of the wife’s ex-boyfriends, releases a myriad of pent-up emotions.

In the middle of all this, we cross to another scene. He has more hair, she has a more relaxed look about her. Suddenly we realise that we are seeing the start of their relationship, and from here on in the two timelines are juxtaposed to give us the whole picture.

Blue Valentine is an actor’s piece, so it’s wonderful that it has two of the best young actors of this generation as its leads, Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. The film (which, in my opinion, presents a great argument against marriage, particularly marriage at a young age, or after a short courtship, or spontaneous) apparently originated from the director’s childhood experiences at one point (he thought his parents might be divorcing) and, thanks to Gosling and Williams, he is able to make the story poignant and emotional. Fluffy rom-coms are OK for escapism, but this film has much more truth in it than any of those.