What if you discovered that your potential soul mate lived just across the road?
What if the chemistry between you was so magnetic that you began to question the seemingly happy marriage you’re already in?
That’s the quandary that quirky, aspiring young writer Margot (Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn) finds herself in one sultry Toronto summer when she meets Daniel (Luke Kirby, Mambo Italiano) a charismatic, handsome rickshaw driver and closeted artist.
Life at home with her chicken-cookbook-writing husband Lou (Seth Rogen, Knocked Up) would seem content enough but it’s soon clear that Margot isn’t exactly happy. As the film opens she sits near an oven in anticipation for the cake she’s only just popped in. A doleful look washes over her face implying an unspoken, desperate need that’s clearly not being fulfilled; not by the black, juvenile banter she shares with Lou, nor her awkward attempts at intimacy with him, nor the staidness that seems to have encroached on their married life.
Life at home with her chicken-cookbook-writing husband Lou (Seth Rogen, Knocked Up) would seem content enough but it’s soon clear that Margot isn’t exactly happy. As the film opens she sits near an oven in anticipation for the cake she’s only just popped in. A doleful look washes over her face implying an unspoken, desperate need that’s clearly not being fulfilled; not by the black, juvenile banter she shares with Lou, nor her awkward attempts at intimacy with him, nor the staidness that seems to have encroached on their married life.
“Why do we need to have a conversation?” asks Lou at their fifth wedding anniversary dinner as Margot awkwardly tries to stimulate some kind of meaningful dialogue. “We live together.”
It’s a plot that could resemble any derivative romantic drama but Take This Waltz is anything but. It’s a richly layered, thoughtful, original and comical insight into love and relationships and the discontentment that can nag away at the soul.
Canadian writer/director Sarah Polley (Away From Her) seems to be posing a few questions and home truths here; we’re all bound to feel a gaping hole in our lives at some point - but then that is life. Does our discontentment and self worth lie reflected in our romantic entanglements, whether long term or shiny and new? Or do they lie somewhere deeper within one’s self, a chasm that can’t be papered over by love?
It may all sound a bit too heavy but it isn’t - there’s a quirky sense of humour and warmth that beats through Take This Waltz, no better exemplified than in a raucous pool scene that’s a laugh-out-loud joy.
Performances are largely superb; Williams continues to prove what an outstanding talent she is as the fragile, childlike Margot; Rogen shows he can meet her dramatically and Kirby is a charming leading man.
The quiet revelation though is comic Sarah Silverman as Geraldine, Margot’s straight-talking alcoholic best friend and sister-in-law who’s struggling to stay on the wagon. Compare this to Silverman's cheeky parody ‘I’m F****ing Matt Damon’ which caused a sensation a few years back and you can see her subtle – and not so subtle - versatility as a performer.
The quiet revelation though is comic Sarah Silverman as Geraldine, Margot’s straight-talking alcoholic best friend and sister-in-law who’s struggling to stay on the wagon. Compare this to Silverman's cheeky parody ‘I’m F****ing Matt Damon’ which caused a sensation a few years back and you can see her subtle – and not so subtle - versatility as a performer.
Polley, who explored a long term relationship in its winter years in 2007’s moving Away From Her has produced a whimsical, searingly honest relationship comedy/drama here and continues to sharpen her pedigree as a quality independent writer and director.
This, her sophomore feature is perhaps too reliant on the contrivance of chance, a little too long and occasionally suffers from some all-too-clever, all-too-self aware dialogue, but it’s so well executed and lovingly made that these elements hardly matter.
This, her sophomore feature is perhaps too reliant on the contrivance of chance, a little too long and occasionally suffers from some all-too-clever, all-too-self aware dialogue, but it’s so well executed and lovingly made that these elements hardly matter.
Ultimately, when it comes to the questions of love and longing it poses, Take This Waltz - unlike many mainstream Hollywood romantic comedy/dramas - offers us no easy, pat answers, no black and white resolution.
As the audience, it’s left to us to decide for ourselves what or who will be the source of Margot’s contentment and how fleeting that may be.
As the audience, it’s left to us to decide for ourselves what or who will be the source of Margot’s contentment and how fleeting that may be.
Film: 4.0/5.0 stars
Starring: Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Luke Kirby, Sarah Silverman.
Director: Sarah Polley.
Written By: Sarah Polley.
Rated: MA 15+
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Year: 2011
Run Time: 116 minutes.
Extras: Making Of featurette.
Out: Now.
Review By James Mitchell
No comments:
Post a Comment