10 Heart-Breaking Moments Of Self-Realisation That Defined Great Movies

7. Blue Valentine - Dean's Life Is Over

Before he started making self-perpetuating movies with Nicholas Winding Refn (once well, and once not so well,) Ryan Gosling was still making a name for himself as that one guy who only chose smart films, regardless of the money he could make if he took a more proactively Vince Vaughan-like approach to saying yes.

In what was probably his best period of work to date, Gosling starred opposite the equally excellent Michelle Williams as a couple whose volatile relationship is falling apart slowly and devastatingly. We are privy to both the first and last days of the relationship, watching how the dream of the relationship eventually gives way to the reality of mundanity for Williams' frustrated Cindy, and after a disastrous final attempt to fix themselves, the pair split.

Throughout the film, it is patently obvious that Gosling's Dean has no idea of how bad things are, and it takes the relationship ending completely for his moment of self-realisation to happen, propelled by his daughter's attempts to stop him from leaving.

This is the moment that Dean's ignorance of his situation finally snaps away, and in one raw moment he realises everything that he has lost, without ever making a conscious effort to sabotage his life. The rug has been pulled out from under him, and for all of his mistakes, it is breath-takingly hard to take the tragedy of the moment.