Review of Take This Waltz (2011) by Claudine J — 05 Jul 2012

"Life has a gap in it... It just does. You don't go crazy trying to fill it.".

A happily married woman falls for the artist who lives across the street.

REVIEW.

Sarah Polley includes Leonard Cohen's titular song at the key moment, as she tells an intense story of voided relationships. The story is of Margot, a beautiful Michelle Williams and her partially satisfying and comfortable marriage to Lou, a believable Seth Rogen. Margot perceives gaps in her relationship and sees in Daniel (Luke Kirby) what she lacks. Includes some racy scenes but in context, and it's really a stunningly beautiful, romantic and insightful movie. Not just a chick's flick but it does move slowly at times as it plumbs relationships and context, and some people won't get it. That's at least part of the issue that Polley deals with as she contemplates change, trading comfort for excitement, the known for the unknown and certainty for no longer being afraid.

Polley's sophomore directorial offering feels more like a first film because it plays as if it's deeply personal. She also brings Toronto to life with bright-saturated colours and beautiful street and beachfront settings. The expressed theme of the film is exploring the gap-that potentially terrifying space between things, places, or more importantly commitment and relationships. This theme arises again and again throughout the film. Whether it's between Geraldine's (Silverman) sobriety and drunkenness or Margot's (Williams) neurotic fear of changing planes between two connecting flights (requiring wheelchair assistance even though she's not disabled) or the anxious and confusing space that exists between the love of a husband, Lou (Rogen), and the love of a new potential romantic and erotic partner, Daniel (Kirby), we are always in the gap-never firmly on one side or the other. A lovely, haunting story in which many will find reality to resonate for a long time.