Blue Valentine NC-17 Rating for Sex Scene

After battling the MPAA ratings board (and losing) over the R-rating given to documentary The Tillman Story and Oscar frontrunner The King’s Speech (which breaks the “3 f---s” rule), Weinstein Co.’s upcoming drama Blue Valentine has been hit with the dreaded NC-17 rating, according to Deadline. The drama, directed by Derek Cianfrance, is creating Oscar buzz for stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, who play a young couple in an unraveling relationship. The scene in question concerns a hotel room sequence in which Gosling’s character wants to have sex, but Williams’s doesn’t—according to Deadline, and an upsetting episode occurs. However, Deadline claims there is little nudity and no violence in the scene. Despite the hype surrounding Blue Valentine, the NC-17 rating, which prevents anyone under the age of 17 from seeing the film, hurts its marketability. The MPAA has long been criticized for giving harsher ratings to films depicting sex and nudity as opposed to violence. The most graphic film of the year, for example, The Human Centipede (First Sequence), was given an R-rating by the MPAA.