Blue Valentine

Stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams won Golden Globe nominations for their potent performances here as a working-class couple whose relationship has decayed from sweet, quirky, obstacle-riddled romance to stagnant marriage. Husband Dean is a house painter and devoted father who smokes and drinks a lot, and is frustrated with wife Cindy’s disenchantment with their life. Writer-director Derek Cianfrance, with a huge emotional wallop, intertwines the present with the past as the pair’s trek to a cheesy sex motel (their Future Room looks like the inside of a robot’s vagina, says Dean) becomes a crucial pivot point in a story about what it feels like to fall in and out of love, squandered potential, trusting your own feelings, aging, abortion, love at first sight and dysfunctional conversation.