After finally sitting down to watch the film, I think I'd only edit the phrase by saying: "Don't see it if you're in a bad relationship." Or perhaps, more directly: "Don't see it if you live in rural Pennsylvania and marry someone with little life ambition while you slowly become more heartless and unaffected."
Of course it's sad. Hell, it's devastating. The irony is, I haven't seen in a movie in a long time that created the believable structure of a relationship as well it's destruction. In most stories, you only get one or the other and quite honestly, I've never believed either. When telling the tale of two people falling in love, you don't really see the tiny pieces that get them there.
Blue Valentine did an amazing job stretching out the infinitesimal reasons why people can fall into a state of such perfect, undeniable love and attraction as well as how those things can begin to disintegrate over time. It's real, it's honest and it's terribly depressing.
Over the course of an average lifespan, you're going to be able to relate in a small way to how relationships can fall apart. That first love that broke your heart, that guy you realized was your best friend, the hot guy who you had nothing in common with... We can all relate to how something that seems so straight forward in the beginning can somehow diverge into levels upon levels of complications. People are difficult to relate to. People change over their lifetime and the trick is, to find someone that can accept you at different stages.
The only thing that made me ache over Blue Valentine was the empathy I felt for these characters and how heartbreaking it is when something that was once so beautiful can end so tragically. So, basically...the whole movie.
If you want to skip the heartbreak and simply take away the good parts, I urge you to go download the movie's title song: "You and Me" by Penny and the Quarters. It's been on repeat for last three weeks on my ipod.
