"[The film] alternates between scenes of the couple's glorious beginnings and bitter end, while employing a visual style that corresponds to the mood..."

- Laura Kern, Film Comment

3.5 stars out of 4 -- "[N]ot to be missed. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams give two of the most explosive and emotionally naked performances you will see anywhere."

- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Included in USA Today's "10 Best Films Of 2010" -- "A heartbreaking work of staggering poignancy..."

- Claudia Puig, USA Today

4 stars out of 4 -- "Gosling and Williams have the most palpable chemistry of any screen couple this year, never striking a false note in this achingly tender tale of a love that implodes before our eyes."

- Claudia Puig, USA Today

"[The film gives] Gosling and Williams both the motive and the means to create something extraordinary, a valentine that actually says something true about being in love."

- Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times

"The heartbreaking brilliance of this film, which the director wrote with Joey Curtis and Cami Delavigne, lies in its contradictions."

- , Wall Street Journal

"BLUE VALENTINE's fearless candor and extreme emotional intensity should be a source of pride for everyone involved in this remarkable, utterly wrenching film." -- Grade: A

- Nathan Rabin, A.V. Club

"Ms. Williams is, as ever, heartbreakingly precise in every scene..."

- A. O. Scott, New York Times

3.5 stars out of 4 -- "Derek Cianfrance, the film's writer and director, observes with great exactitude the birth and decay of a relationship. The film is alive in its details."

- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"[T]he performances are fleshed out and telling. Gosling layers his character's charm with an eruptive and credible anger."

- Duane Byrge, Hollywood Reporter

3 stars out of 4 -- "The results can be almost unbearably harrowing but also deeply cathartic, as viewers create their own meanings within Dean and Cindy's singular downward spiral."

- , Washington Post

4 stars out of 5 -- "You won't see a more honest movie in 2011 -- and that's a promise."

- Nev Pierce, Empire

4 stars out of 5 -- "You might feel like averting your gaze at times, but don't -- performances this penetrating are a sight to see."

- Matt Mueller, Total Film

"[T]he film is firstly an actor's piece -- a two-hander between Williams and Gosling, who both deliver truthful, committed performances, explored through improvised dialogue and action."

- James Bell, Sight and Sound