Review of Take This Waltz (2011) by Saba Z — 27 May 2012

Margo (Michelle Williams) meets Daniel(Luke Kirby) at a Colonial re-enactment, and they encounter each other again at the airport, en route to their Montreal home. By happenstance, they also happen to be neighbors. Margo is almost instantly drawn to Daniel, yet having to remind herself that she is married to Lou (Seth Rogan). As days go by, Margo's interest in Daniel turns to infatuation.

In a word, almost everything about this movie is forced. The married woman "following her heart" to pursue an affair outside the marriage and have it painted from the "a woman's heart is an ocean" point of view is now a tired Hollywood cliche. The chemistry between Rogan and Williams, as well as Kirby and Williams, was also forced. The script was subpar, to me. I never got a sense of WHY the marriage was strained, WHY Margo was attracted to Daniel, etc.

Seth Rogan's casting as the dramatic lead is questionable, although he does display some occasional dramatic chops. I admire that he is following a path similar to Jim Carrey and Robin Williams, in that they launched their career with comedy, but transitioned successfully into starring dramatic roles, as well. At this point, I simply don't see Rogan as more than the guy who steered the ship for several Judd Apatow films. That said, he showed me enough promise that I would be willing to give him another shot if he is cast in a different dramatic role. Michelle Williams is great, but I am coming to the belief that she is Clooney-esque in that she has limited range, but what she does, she does extremely well. While all the performances were good, Sarah Silverman's casting as Geraldine, Lou's sister who is struggling with demons of her own, was surprisingly good. Stamped with Silverman's trademark crass tongue, she was the most unexpected casting choice that worked the best.

The pacing of this film is very, very slow. It takes a while to get moving in one particular direction, and I felt an unnecessary amount of time was used setting up Lou and Margo's life, and more specifically, Margo's. There are slight shades of 'Blue Valentine' here, minus the emotional grip that film possessed.

While 'Take This Waltz' has some great moments, it is not as a whole a great movie. It left me emotionally unsatisfied, maybe because I found the characters difficult to engage in emotionally. It is a movie that is unsure where it wants to go, and unsure how to get there.