Review of Take This Waltz (2011) by Alice S — 25 Jun 2013

I imagine that this movie would review itself with such choice descriptors as "painfully exquisite" and "delicately twee" with "deeply felt performances" - all of which combine to mean it's nauseatingly arthouse. Michelle Williams has paddled up the Creek to become the reigning queen of this genre, and good for her, really, but I honestly found her a bit self-conscious in her performance of Margot's kinky baby games. The film also spends SO much time with those quirks that we don't get to know the couple beyond that. What is Margot missing in this marriage? What does she want out of life? Why did they get together in the first place?

The flirtation between her and ripped rickshaw driver Daniel is restrainedly sexy, but the moment she...takes this waltz (if you will)...the movie shifts tone and becomes surface fantasy fulfillment, then pseudo-morality tale, then "I am woman hear me meow" fever dream. All three of these revelations come too late in the film for them to have any impact.

Oh Seth Rogen. You are no wispy-faced Charlotte Rampling in Woody Allen's "Stardust Memories," nor are you child prodigy Jean-Pierre Leaud in Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows." Those artily cut scenes of long, emotionally wrought or emotionally stoic monologues (respectively) are iconic due to their pure, eyes-open candor. Seth Rogen knew he had to bring it for this dramatic role, and once again, good for him for trying, but he shouldn't have tried so hard. Uncover your face and let's see you feel something instead of acting like you're feeling something.

The upsides of this experience were that this movie made me want to.

1. move to Montreal. The neighborhood looks so colorful and cool, and there are freakin' rickshaws and a within-walking-distance beach and mock-floggings for tourists!

2. watch twee kook Miranda July's tweely kooky "You, Me, and Everyone We Know" again. I didn't love it as a whole, but I found the beautiful parts REALLY beautiful, and I think I'd appreciate it more now in comparison.