Blue Valentine: The Controversy

Finally. The poster. The trailer that’s banned. The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) rating issue.

God, I can not wait to see this movie. And the whole controversy is only making me that more excited about it. It’s a rare opportunity in diabolic Hollywood where one has a chance to see - a real relationship movie.

Usually, it’s the same ol’ crap recycled over and over again. To finally see the relationship on the screen the way they are in real life; raw, realistic and troubling. Like we’re there with them, participating. To be happy when they are, to be uncomfortable when they are.

That’s what I’ve been waiting for since 500 Days of Summer.

Blue Valentine is about something everyone on this planet experienced. A relationship that changed. Fallen apart. The one you thought will last forever and stay exactly like it was in the beginning. When you thought - "Well, others are others, but mine will be like this forever".

And then it changes before you finished the sentence. ‘Blue Valentine’ is about the sides of the change that happened; whose fault is it?

Which of the two is the blame?

How does it sneak up on us?

The struggle between the feeling and the thought.

And the struggle of trying to co-exist with another human being.

But like everything that is trying to depict the truth, ‘Blue Valentine’ stepped into the minefield. MPAA gave them the NC-17 rating that the producer Harvey Weinstein is trying to appeal - and get an R. To get NC-17? A movie that is neither a horror nor a thriller?

Wait, what? According to MPAA, the movie is too raw. Or let me put it in their words –

“It’s showing a shocking, gory depiction of a dying marriage.”

Yes, people, we live in a world where the realistic depiction of a relationship is threatening to a society where conservatives and Christians think they can sell you their views on family.

To quote the film’s star, Michelle Williams –

“We live in the world where honest portrayal of a relationship is more threatening than the sensationalized one.”

What they did to this great movie with this whole ordeal is limit the film’s audience – and its Oscar chances.

God forbid they stop dumbing us for 90 min.

That’s just outrageous.

Blue Valentine opens on Dec. 31st.

Be there.