Posted at 7:00 AM ET, 01/ 7/2011

On screen this week: 'Blue Valentine,' 'Country Strong,' 'Alamar'

By Anne Kenderdine

All movies should take you on a journey; "Alamar" really immerses you in the shimmering seascape. (Film Movement)

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams turn in top performances in a portrait of a crumbling relationship in "Blue Valentine," Gwyneth Paltrow stars as a Nashville diva in "Country Strong" and the part-documentary "Alamar" ("To the Sea") shows a young boy's summer with his father in a Mexican Caribbean coral reef. Here's what Post critics had to say about this week's releases:

Blue Valentine (R) "An oddly exhilarating experience, if only to witness two of the screen's finest actors working at the top of their game, to the depth of their souls." -- Ann Hornaday

Country Strong (R) "Filled with one-dimensional characters and melodrama so Lifetime movie-esque that it careens into unintentional comedy." -- Jen Chaney

Season of the Witch (PG-13) "Slower than the midtempo Donovan ditty from which it borrows its title, and without that song's sense of atmosphere." -- Mark Jenkins