Review: Take This Waltz

Directed by: Sarah Polley

Written by: Sarah Polley

Starring: Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Luke Kirby, Sarah Silverman, Jennifer Podemski 

Rating: [2.5/5]

The likability of characters carries such importance to the way some, including myself, watch movies. At the very least they need something intriguing about them to keep you hooked on the story even if they display characteristics you find despicable. Take This Waltz represents one of those films creating this massively difficult watching experience where it tells a cogent story but one with such an insufferable character of it all, which becomes the point. 

On an assignment in Nova Scotia, Margot (Michelle Williams) meets Daniel (Luke Kirby) and they strike up quite the chemistry with the only wrinkle being she’s already a married woman. As they make their way back home to Toronto, they learn they live across the street from each other. With more time spent together, their relationship teeters on fully diving into the romantic despite the obvious obstacle in their way. 

Margot, as a character, frustrates me to no end. Someone married to an individual who might not be perfect but certainly helps provide her with a happy life. They have their routines and small ways they interact with each other showing they’ve been together for several years and have built quite a rapport. Everything about their dynamic has this appearance of a marriage others should try to emulate. However, with all of that said, this feature displays the perfectly normal nature of her current life and her willingness to just throw it all away for this romance with a man she has known for a fraction of the time. 

This journey proves very difficult to watch as Margot comes home to a loving husband but he lacks something that fully has her bought into the relationship 100%. She believes she can get that missing piece from this potential relationship with Daniel. Incredibly shortsighted thinking on her own part bordering on immaturity, which audience members can certainly gain a disdain for. What turns this film around lies in this becoming the very point of this feature as Margot haphazardly dives into this self-destructive behavior as others rightfully point out but it remains her mistake to make. This becomes the challenge in watching this film. 

Whenever not home, Margot essentially spends time with Daniel in a way where her husband sees him as a good friend and does not realize this man essentially wants to wreck his home with a smile. This makes for several romantic sequences between Margot and Daniel as they contemplate going all the way and giving in to their desires with each other while I try to hold in my vomit from leaking out. As someone happily married, it boggles my mind someone would brazenly act in this way in the hopes this guy she barely knows would provide the missing ingredient in her life. However, the overall filmmaking cannot be denied by the hands of Sarah Polley. 

Making a film like this one following the heartbreaking drama of Away from Her where a man battles with the reality of losing his wife to Alzheimer presents the polar opposite of what this feature tries to accomplish. On one hand that feature delves into the commitment, this man has for his wife through thick and thin and loves so deeply where we have the flaky Margot and how she feels like she can just throw away her marriage on the whim of a romance of her dreams instead of what really exists before here with her husband. Polley certainly does her job in eliciting emotions and most likely the intentional ones I feel when watching the decision-making of this lead character. 

Boasted by some stunning cinematography by Luc Montpellier, this feature truly captures the romantic gaze Sarah Polley wraps around Margot and her relationship with Daniel such a fever dream. The moments they share prior to the big decision made in this feature show the beauty around them in Toronto as it continues to make the case of why she would make such a decision. Despite the many things I can respect about the feature, I cannot by any stretch say I enjoy it, which may seem ridiculous to some, but these epically selfish decisions make it unbearable at times to watch making for such an uncomfortable viewing experience.