Review of Take This Waltz (2011) by Nikolai E — 03 Jul 2012

In the opening of the film, in a campy historical re-enactment at a Canadian heritage site, an adulterer is half-heartedly and unconvincingly humiliated in the public square for the dubious entertainment of tourists.

It's not one of the film's stronger scenes, but it does quickly lay out the boundaries to which most 'affair movies' restrict themselves, a place that 'Take This Waltz' could not be farther from.

It's not sufficient to say the film avoids the numerous cliches of the well-populated genre, it's more like it comes from a parallel universe where they have never made a film like this before.

The film conveys a profound emotional intelligence and wisdom about human relationships that most films about love can only pretend to. That said, I feel one might well complain that the dialogue sometimes seems to get away with itself and the film wears its symbols on its sleeve.

I can only say that the symbols and contrivances are as visible to the characters as they are to the audience, which softens the blow, and the dialogue, however tempting it may be, shouldn't be treated like a direct transmission from the filmmaker.

Speaking of the filmmaker, the other thing that sets this film apart from almost every other film you'll see this year is its unmistakeable femininity. It's not often that we go to the cinema and are allowed to look out through a woman's eyes, even among female directors.

There are editing decisions and subjective angles that promptly throw the standard presumed male viewer out the window. There's actually a decent amount of nudity in the film, and you've never seen the female body so desexualized.

And on a more subjective note, this film feels absolutely steeped in Toronto; the gorgeous houses, the colours, it all seems beautifully and authentically like home. And I suppose the film's powerful effect on me was partly subjective as well, but the film speaks subtly and gently about so many inevitable questions and dilemmas, it's sure to draw you in eventually if you let it.

All I know is it nailed me to my seat and refuses to leave my head. The first great film I've seen this year.