Blue Valentine (2010)

Not all valentines are warm and cuddly and filled with sweet goo. Some are bitter and hard like Blue Valentine (2010). Derek Cianfrance’s indie flick depicts the demise of a relationship. High school drop-out Dean Pereira (Ryan Gosling) marries brainy Cindy Heller (Michelle Williams) when she learns she’s been impregnated by her creepy ex-boyfriend (Mike Vogel). The film fluctuates in time to show the beginning of their courtship to the ending of their marriage. While Cindy ambitiously pursues a career in healthcare, Dean becomes lazy and disenchanted with life. After he drunkenly attacks his wife’s boss Dr. Feinberg (Ben Shenkman) at work, Cindy loses her job. Needless to say, it’s only a matter of time before the troublesome twosome call it quits. Despite the depressing story, there’s a highlight in the form of Ryan’s flesh. When Michelle is taking a shower, he jumps in to give us a quick look at his muscular rump! If you blink you’ll be blue. If you hit pause, you’ll know what to do! For his revealing role, Mr. Gosling was nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Globes, the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards and the Satellite Awards. These organizations also nominated Ms. Williams for Best Actress. If that’s not impressive enough, she scored an Oscar nomination and was named Best Actress at the San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards. Did we mention the movie ranked #3 on USA Today’s Best Films of 2010 list? As you can guess, the pic is #1 with Mr. Man!