Unlike Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, a film that raises quirkiness to the level of art, Take This Waltz, the latest Indie film from Canadian director Sarah Polley (Away From Her), is over-constructed and contrived, obscuring whatever value its message may contain. Married to cookbook writer Lou (Seth Rogan), Margot (Michelle Williams), a prospective writer, shows no outward signs of being dissatisfied. Her relationship is filled with playful baby talk, tongue-in-cheek insults, and Lou's daily ritual of pouring cold water over Margot's head when she's taking a shower. When Margot meets Daniel (Luke Kirby) at Cape Breton's Fortress of Louisbourg, however, she begins to sense the emptiness in her marriage.
Unfortunately, several "chance encounters" at the outset strain credibility. Margot and Daniel just happen to be seated next to each other on the plane coming home and discover that they actually live right across the street. Margot tells Daniel that she's afraid of airports because she has "a problem making connections" (note the symbolism). Actually she says that she is just afraid of being afraid. Sounds like someone should have told her "You have nothing to fear but fear itself." We soon learn that Daniel is a bohemian artist who supports himself by driving a rickshaw (you heard right) on the streets of Toronto, while inexplicably living in a fancy loft in a middle class neighborhood.
We all know that his work must be very competitive because the streets of Toronto are just filled with rickshaws. Margot feels a sense of excitement that has been missing from her life, and, in the first throes of their attraction, they visit Toronto's Centre Island, and enjoy the Scrambler Ride to the pulsating rhythms of the 1979 hit "Video Killed the Radio Star" (a song repeated at the end in a different context). They also tease each other with descriptions of the sex they'd like to have, but never follow through and their relationship feels as ambivalent as that of Margot and Lou.
Margot is obviously looking for something but is so confused that she never stops to examine exactly what that something really is. There is no aliveness in any of the film's characters, with the possible exception of Lou's sister (Sarah Silverman), a recovering alcoholic who speaks her mind. The main protagonists never connect to anything outside of themselves and the dialogue is too glib to produce any genuine caring in the viewer. To its credit, however, Take This Waltz has style, excellent cinematography, wonderful music that includes an excellent tracking shot of the two lovers dancing to the Leonard Cohen song "Take This Waltz" and, of course, it has Michelle Williams.
Williams is terrific, as always, though here her character is drawn in such an uninteresting way that there is little humanity and emotion that we can relate to. Take This Waltz has a legitimate message about not being grounded in a stable and secure sense of self and some critics have hailed the film as an example of Margot's "voyage of self-discovery." The voyage, however, does not include talking about her relationship with her partner or with a marriage counselor, or even giving some thought to the vows and commitments she made. When Margot goes to a pool exercise class with some friends, they have a discussion of relationships in the showers. "New is shiny," says one of the women. "New gets old," someone interjects. New gets old very quickly in Take This Waltz.
Unfortunately, several "chance encounters" at the outset strain credibility. Margot and Daniel just happen to be seated next to each other on the plane coming home and discover that they actually live right across the street. Margot tells Daniel that she's afraid of airports because she has "a problem making connections" (note the symbolism). Actually she says that she is just afraid of being afraid. Sounds like someone should have told her "You have nothing to fear but fear itself." We soon learn that Daniel is a bohemian artist who supports himself by driving a rickshaw (you heard right) on the streets of Toronto, while inexplicably living in a fancy loft in a middle class neighborhood.
We all know that his work must be very competitive because the streets of Toronto are just filled with rickshaws. Margot feels a sense of excitement that has been missing from her life, and, in the first throes of their attraction, they visit Toronto's Centre Island, and enjoy the Scrambler Ride to the pulsating rhythms of the 1979 hit "Video Killed the Radio Star" (a song repeated at the end in a different context). They also tease each other with descriptions of the sex they'd like to have, but never follow through and their relationship feels as ambivalent as that of Margot and Lou.
Margot is obviously looking for something but is so confused that she never stops to examine exactly what that something really is. There is no aliveness in any of the film's characters, with the possible exception of Lou's sister (Sarah Silverman), a recovering alcoholic who speaks her mind. The main protagonists never connect to anything outside of themselves and the dialogue is too glib to produce any genuine caring in the viewer. To its credit, however, Take This Waltz has style, excellent cinematography, wonderful music that includes an excellent tracking shot of the two lovers dancing to the Leonard Cohen song "Take This Waltz" and, of course, it has Michelle Williams.
Williams is terrific, as always, though here her character is drawn in such an uninteresting way that there is little humanity and emotion that we can relate to. Take This Waltz has a legitimate message about not being grounded in a stable and secure sense of self and some critics have hailed the film as an example of Margot's "voyage of self-discovery." The voyage, however, does not include talking about her relationship with her partner or with a marriage counselor, or even giving some thought to the vows and commitments she made. When Margot goes to a pool exercise class with some friends, they have a discussion of relationships in the showers. "New is shiny," says one of the women. "New gets old," someone interjects. New gets old very quickly in Take This Waltz.