Review of Take This Waltz (2011) by Jimmy Carl B — 30 May 2012

Take This Waltz is one of those movies that actually left me angry, because it was so close to being a great film yet missed the mark. The reason this sometimes annoys me is that the pitfalls it fell into were so easy to avoid.

The biggest one was simply in its casting and character decisions. The movie would have resonated so much more accurately had Michelle Williams' character been married to Luke Kirby's and had Seth Rogen's character been the "other man" in her life.

To have the beautiful leading lady be married to the goofy, sincere guy and then become smitten by the dark, handsome stranger is such a ridiculous clichà (C) I can't stand it. Had they chosen to take the more true-to-life path of Williams having been married young to someone who matches her physical "type," yet later finds that physical attraction is not a substantive foundation for a long-term relationship and hence her growing attraction to Rogen's personality and depth, the film would have worked and resonated infinitely better.

As it is, it's a tantalizing tease of what could-have-been with all the right pieces floating around in front of you, but put in the wrong place.