Some may quibble with the "gritty independent" look and feel of it, but I thought it was fine. Both Gosling and Williams were award-worthy good, and if the roles feel lived in it's because they both reportedly spent a few years developing the characters before shooting (and both are Executive Producers of the film).

Gosling has go to be one of the more underrated actors of our current time; he does yeoman's work with every role he inhabits. I still have yet to peep Wendy and Lucy, but I hear that it really put Michelle Williams on the map as a Serious Actress, and her work here doesn't do anything to hurt her current standing or talent.

The movie itself is a pretty standard tale of a love gone sour. Cindy has had enough of Dean's shit, and wants out even though Dean's been a "good" husband to Cindy, and a doting father to a daughter who isn't his own (or is she? I thought I paid attention but it's strongly implied that Dean is not the father of the child). Anyway, this present-day disintegration is interspersed with flashbacks to the happier times of the couple's courtship and eventual marriage.

It was kinda nice to see that there wasn't one specific incident that led Cindy to her breaking point. There are a number of subtle things that Ryan Gosling's Dean does that one could see adding up. The basic gist that I pulled away from the piece is that Cindy simply got tired of his childish lack of ambition, and his inability to listen to her. And again, there is no specific event that leads her to this conclusion, it's just a series of things and words and actions. The things that were charming and cute when they first met had become, in the course of a flailing marriage, annoying and counterproductive. So in that sense it felt very real. And while watching the film the temptation may be (at least for the dudes in the audience) to side with Dean, as he's such a good dude who's doing what he thinks is the best that he can for his family. But it's the subtle details that a woman such as Cindy would notice and cause her to feel the way she feels. Both actors give, with a couple of notable scenes, quiet and nuanced performances here.

As far as the NC-17 goes, it would have totally been unwarranted. It was initially given the rating because

(SPOILERS)

of a scene where Ryan Gosling eats Michelle Williams out for like, a minute (but she's got a dress on and you don't see any body parts). That scene remains intact. There's also a scene where they have rough, unromantic sex on a hotel room floor, and you see her breasts undulating as he desperately pumps away. There's also another scene where she's getting banged from behind by her initial boyfriend in a flashback, but again, she's covered and nearly fully-clothed while we see his bare ass. This isn't some porno-level shit here; it's a somewhat realistic deconstruction of a marriage done in piecemeal.

One could quibble with the presence of the first boyfriend, asking if he's even needed. One could quibble with the use of flashbacks, thinking that it's just an unnecessary gimmick (like in Michael Clayton!), but I kinda picked up on the placement of said flashbacks, of what scenes proceeded and followed them, and thought that they were appropriate for that reason. One could also quibble with a couple of LOUD setpieces for Gosling and Williams, including one near the end of the film that I personally didn't have an issue with but some thought was a bit over-the-top.

Overall, it was a fascinating character study.

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