Sundance 2015 - I Smile Back (2015)

Take This Waltz DVD Review

I wasn't sure what to expect from Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz. I only knew her as the lead in Zack Snyder's surprisingly not crap 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. I haven't seen her previous film: Away From Her, but by all accounts it's a powerful and moving piece. I'm always up for a bit of cine-brain food so I sat down and carefully placed the disc in the player. 20 minutes in and I brought up the timer to see how long I had left to go. Not a good sign.

Michelle Williams plays Margot, an aspiring writer who is married to Lou (Seth Rogen), a chef compiling a chicken cookbook. Whilst on an excursion, Margot meets Daniel (Luke Kirby). Sparks fly and there's an instant mutual attraction. After finding out Daniel lives very close by, Margot's temptation to stray from her safe, dependable marriage becomes stronger and stronger and the film deals with her being caught between the two men. Whilst it stars some really great actors, I really got a disingenuous feeling from it all. Michelle Williams' Margot is meant to be quirkier than a hat on a lamb, but ends up coming across as a cynical approximation of a quirky lass. It's not her fault as I'm sure this is how she was directed. She's been fantastic in other films. It's just all so insultingly twee and precious. There's a scene early on where she and Daniel are both in the back of a cab, blowing some kind of hanging tassel back and forth. I'm sure this is meant to be charming, but I kept thinking “You're both fucking adults! What the hell!?” I know adults act like childish dicks all the time (I'd like to think I specialise in it), but it just seemed so laboured and staged.

It's hard to express the sort of reaction I had to this film. For nearly all of the runtime, it's an indier-than-thou bullshit romance. It's the sort of film destined to have monochromatic .gifs of key scenes made of it and plastered all over Tumblr. The dialogue is that special breed of pretentious and whimsical, containing “deep” metaphors. In their first proper meeting, Margot confides in Daniel that she's been fraudulently using airport wheelchair facilities to make sure she doesn't miss her connecting flights. She confesses she's afraid of being afraid of missing connections. Overlooking the appalling misuse of disabled facilities, it doesn't take a genius to work out that this works as a handy plot metaphor too. It's really not as clever as it thinks it is. As soon as the lines were said, I had flagged them up as narrative signposts, rather than just two people talking. The whole film's like this and I had a tough time sticking with it.

I think the characters are my main problem. We're not meant to unequivocally love Margot, but I don't think you're meant to dislike her as much as I did. She's an air-headed, silly little girl who I just didn't have any time for. Cardboard lothario Daniel, played by Kirby and looking like The Walking Dead's Andrew Lincoln run through the “hipster dreamboat” filter a few times, is a struggling bohemian artist type who makes ends meet working as a rickshaw driver around Toronto. If you just let out anything resembling a snort of derision at that character description, this film won't be for you. Seth Rogen's Lou is just a nice, average guy and is therefore (intentionally) pretty boring. The only one with some “oomph” about them is Sarah Silverman's recovering alcoholic Geraldine, who gets a fantastic scene towards the end and gets to say a few things to Margot that I found to be very cathartic.

Look, it isn't all bad. It's undeniably a well-made film. Some of the shots and locations are truly beautiful. The film also has quite a candid approach to things which gives an air of reality to proceedings. It's a compelling illusion until somebody opens their gob and more whimsical crap dollops out. The actors are occasionally allowed to act like real people and Seth Rogen gets some really nice moments. I know I'm not the target demographic for this. There is an audience out there who will love it for what it is- I just don't want to know them. Had the film stayed on the course it was on for 90% of the total time, it would have been one of the most irritating films I'd ever seen. As it stands, the ending makes up for a bit, but not nearly enough. The very last bit spoils it though. Just even suggesting that Margot can retreat back into her little fantasy land and not learn anything from everything that's happened was truly maddening.

Take This Waltz is a pretentious, “grass is greener” story that wants to play with romantic conventions, but ends up as an annoying air-headed fantasy with delusions of depth. I've only just unclenched my fists to type this review. It pissed me off. Stick that on the DVD cover.

Ben Browne

★★☆☆☆

Rating: 15
UK Release Date: 7^th January 2013
Cast: Michelle Williams, Seth Rogan, Luke Kirby, Sarah Silverman
Directed by: Sarah Polley

Take This Waltz Set For UK January Home Release

TAKE THIS WALTZ, written and directed by Sarah Polley and starring Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Luke Kirby and Sarah Silverman. TAKE THIS WALTZ is out to own on JANUARY 7th, 2013 and the summertime setting of Toronto will surely thaw any January blues!

Following the success of her Academy Award nominated film Away From Her, Sarah Polley weaves another intelligent, sensitive drama in TAKE THIS WALTZ.
When Margot (Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine), meets Daniel (Luke Kirby, The Samaritan) on a business trip, their chemistry is intense and immediate. Margot suppresses her sudden attraction as she is happily married to Lou (Seth Rogen, Green Hornet), a cookbook writer. When Margot learns that Daniel lives across the street from them, the certainty about her domestic life shatters. She and Daniel steal moments throughout the steaming Toronto summer, their eroticism heightened by their restraint.
Filled with colours, TAKE THIS WALTZ leads us, laughing, through the familiar, but uncharted question of what long-term relationships do to love, sex, and our images of ourselves.

DVD & Blu-ray Extras: Taking the Waltz / Trailer



Pre-Order:Take This Waltz [Blu-ray] / DVD