Love at Toys 'R' Us

Derek Cianfrance's new film (Blue Valentine) is built around the main qualities of its star, Channing TatumA rare combination of imposing physical presence, playful charisma, and emotional vulnerability. Jeffrey Manchester, the amateur criminal who in real life robbed several fast-food restaurants and ended up living for six months in a Toys 'R' Us, is a character not far removed from thestripper sensitive and –only seemingly– self-assured, the character Tatum portrayed in Magic Mike, Soderbergh's torrid film. The actor seems comfortable, then, within the confines of a characteristic American cinematic archetype: the shameless opportunist who, cast aside by an unjust system, sabotages it by setting traps.

Cianfrance relies on Tatum's undeniable charm to portray corporate America as a dehumanized structure against which only rebellion is possible, even if it takes the form of small gestures of dissent that ultimately prove utterly futile. Given that this is the director of Blue ValentineA romantic drama from which we are still recovering, it was to be expected, however, that the true heart of the film would be in the delicate love story between the protagonist and the divorced mother played by an earthy and moving Kirsten Dunst, who seems determined to prove herself, film after film.