"For ‘Blue Valentine,' I spent so many years [on it]. People said, ‘Just make the movie,'" Cianfrance said. "For me on that movie, I had to shoot it half on film and half of that movie ...

Dean Pereira and Cindy Heller Pereira are a young working-class married couple with a young daughter, Frankie. Dean currently works as a painter and Cindy is a nurse at a medical clinic.

That type-casting gets spun on its head in Blue Valentine. He stars alongside Michelle Williams in this movie about an unraveling relationship between lovers Dean and Cindy. A dysfunctional ...