Arts & Entertainment

Movie Review: 'Take This Waltz'

The romantic drama-comedy opens Friday, July 20th at the Criterion Cinemas in New Haven.

 

"Take This Waltz" is a film so full of gorgeous color and breathtaking visuals, it might be tempting to just enjoy the view and leave one's brain in the lobby.

Writer/director Sarah Polley (whose previous film, "Away From Her", dealt with marriage and memory with startling grace and maturity) no doubt hopes that viewers' brains are fully functional while watching her new movie.

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There is a lot to think about: The difficult issue of fidelity within marriage, as well as more general struggles involving empathy, freedom and responsibility.

"Take This Waltz" tells the story of a sometimes-employed writer named Margot (Michelle Williams) who struggles with the decision of staying with her husband, Lou (Seth Rogen), or leaving him for a rickshaw-pulling artist, Daniel (Luke Kirby).

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A fairly traditional set-up on paper, the film's three lead actors bring out their characters' rough edges: Michelle Williams cultivates inside jokes and uses "baby talk" in bed with Rogen, making for marital scenes that are both incredibly specific and cringe-inducingly honest. 

In contrast, the twitching uneasiness that radiates from Williams around her suitor, Kirby, is equally off-putting. Each type of behavior feels more unsettling that either Williams or Polley hopefully intended--Williams crumbles deeper and deeper into each scene--and are all the more fascinating as a result.

Scenes involving Luke Kirby's seducing menace are both earnest and troubling, as he eventually comes across like more of a stalker than anything else. In a scene where Kirby just shows up at a pool where Williams is swimming (How did he find her?), the film starts to feel like a romantic comedy as directed by David Lynch. 

It's difficult to gauge what Polley is aiming for in these scenes. Does she want to get laughs? A concerned reaction? A puzzled one?

Her directorial hand was so sure and steady with "Away From Her" that "Waltz" must be either a script that got away from her (pun) or a mad exercise in uneasiness. Maybe it's both.

The casting of comic actors like Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman (who plays Rogen's alcoholic sister, Geraldine) is an admirable move by Polley. 

It's easy to picture a performer like Seth Rogen screwing up big dramatic moments, but his unusual, naive approach makes the film ever the more interesting, even as his acting style tilts the realism of certain scenes slightly off its axis.

A central theme of the film is summed up by a line from Silverman: "Life has a gap in it, it just does. You don't go crazy trying to fill it." 

"Take This Waltz" is a real, beautiful mess. Who should Williams choose? Her husband or the handsome new guy?

The answer turns out to be less than compelling, but the process of watching Williams, Rogen and Kirby try to navigate these gaps in logic and life is a diverting and often charming experience.

"Takes This Waltz" opens Friday, July 20th, at the Criterion Cinemas in New Haven


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