Take This Waltz [DVD]

I watched this on the strength of Michelle Williams' presence: since first seeing her in the magnificent 'Station Agent', she has proved herself to be an outstanding actress who has often been in quirky, indie films which focus on character and eschew the glossy production values of standard Hollywood fare. (Try 'Blue Valentine', 'Meek's Cutoff', 'Wendy and Lucy', as well as the more mainstream 'Brokeback Mountain' and 'Marilyn'.) In that context, this is something of a disappointment, though still eminently watchable. I was also interested to see another Sarah Polley film as an earlier acclaimed film had left me cold: I really wanted to see what I might have missed about her work.

The basic premise is interesting enough, of a woman falling out of love and finding emotional and sexual liberation outside her marriage, and I find it very difficult to put my finger on why it doesn't quite succeed, though I think part of the problem lies with Seth Rogan: for me he seems so limited in conveying a character who is interesting or appealing enough to have attracted Margot that it is hard to believe their relationship ever existed, though conversely, I suppose, one can see why she wishes for escape! His voice, for example, is utterly lacking in flexibility and nuance.

Some of the elements suggest a romcom package: her phobias which prompt the pretence of disability to enable her to cope with them; Lou's (Rogan) exclusive focus on chicken cookery; the stranger on the plane who happens to live over the street and earns money selling rickshaw rides. And yet the film presents it all 'for real', and not entirely convincingly so. The arrival of the ending seems clumsily delayed so the sense of the story arc is mismanaged (and I really don't think Polley is 'playing' with audience expectation in an interesting or subversively creative way). The, for want of a better description, sexual montage which we see towards the end, presumably inserted to show how far Margot has moved on, is not convincingly presented as a plausible development. Or perhaps she has just got herself into another relationship that isn't 'right'. But that's a guess, not anything the film really seems to imply or illuminate.

I found Polley's previous film 'Away From Her'(acclaimed by critics), a real damp squib too, doubly disappointing as family experience made me particularly eager to see a thoughtful film about the effects of dementia within a relationship: that too was only OK, and not a film I would want to see again.

I never heard anything about this film before viewing it and I dont know any of the actors besides one of the male protagonists who I believe also starred in SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT The Green Hornet.

It is the story of an unhappily married woman who is wooed by a new neighbour, it switches between the home dynamic between her and her distracted and inconsistent husband, the bohemian neighbour and his efforts at seduction and family and friends.

I am unsure of any major themes, although the characters are interesting but lacking in any real depth, the acting is good and probably the better for not being a feature which has a lot of big names.

Perhaps there are some themes about age (the contrast between young and old, childish or childlike character), crisis or priorities (contrasts between alcoholism and other crisis, the husband appears to "fiddle while rome burns" focusing on his cookery writing rather than his wife) and maybe the song "Video killed the radio star" has some significance.

There are a number of nude scenes, including some in the showers after the female lead and her friends have been to a swim aerobics class, which didnt seem that necessary and a later montage of sexual antics was the same.

I have used the word curious in the title of the review because that is how I feel about this film, it is not exactly compelling viewing or worthy of a lot of discussion or rewatching but if you possess any curiosity you will feel like watching it to the finish. Whether or not you feel it was worthwhile or not will be in question, if you like features of this kind (I am thinking Amelie [DVD] [2001] or Lost in Translation [DVD] [2004] but those are features with more rewatch value than this production).

I was sufficiently intrigued by this film to watch the included extra - which includes interviews with Canadian director/actor Sarah Polley, and various members of the cast. I was glad that I did, because it helped to explain the sense of emptiness that I was left with after watching the film. In a way that was the point - that there is a part of most of us that feels there is something missing in our lives when we settle in to cosy domesticity.

The most striking thing about the film for me was the lighting and the way it was shot. The sense of bright, hot and humid Toronto was brilliantly captured. In fact this is sometimes like an advert for Canada - those beautiful brightly painted shabby chic houses in downtown Toronto, the wilds of Nova Scotia, not to forget the soundtrack featuring Leonard Cohen and Feist channeling Ron Sexsmith. Not quite sure they got it right with the Buggles choice for the fairground scene, but perhaps I missed some deeper reference?

Michelle Williams does a great job here, bringing an authenticity to a role that could have come across as a bit shallow. 'Happily married' but inextricably drawn to the sexy neighbour. She does manage to capture the sense of desire, denial, and ultimately hard gained knowledge that falling in love does not change the world and everyone has to learn to deal with 'the fade'. I thought Luke Kirby as Daniel also managed to find something rather special in his performance, which went deeper than his attractiveness. Sarah Silverman is surprisingly good as well and really sums up in the key line of the movie for me - "Life has a gap in it. It just does. You don't go crazy trying to fill it like some lunatic". Ironic coming from a alcoholic that has just fallen off the wagon.

This won't be everyone's cup of tea. The pace is languid for the most part, but then shoots forward towards the end. This is more about emotion than action. Overall: worthwhile