”I’m afraid of connections.”

This line of dialogue is spoken by the film’s protagonist, Margot, a pretty tomboyish journalist and the type of person who only ever exists within the world of films. She is in fact talking about the connections made at airports but the line is obviously smothered in laughably unsubtle subtext just in case the audience misses writer-director, Sarah Polley’s intent. Frustratingly it is representative of a film that is so on-the-nose and contrived that it is impossible to invest in this young woman’s dilemma. That dilemma comes in the form of a tentative affair with her neighbour whilst the romance in her marriage has long since subsided into passion-free contentment.

Polley’s debut feature, Away from Her,…

If someone were to point out my favorite thing(s) to read, even more than a great novel, it would be essays about something that affected them so deeply that they felt compelled to write about it. It can be short, or it can be 20 pages long. A great author of this approach would be Lester Bangs, who wrote beautifully indulgent music reviews in such an intensely personal way that were so resonant, that for the right reader, you might want to hug the guy for articulating exactly what music can really mean in a way that you’ve been trying to express yourself. I certainly didn’t always agree with Bangs, but I always identified with how insanely wonderful the experience…

I like what Sarah Polley wanted to do with this film.

I like that she tried to display that je ne sais quoi that exists between couples, those moments that can only come into existence when two personalities live together, those moments that you can't recreate in a relationship with someone else. It is a difficult thing to capture on film when you think about it. That might be why Polley choose to focus on the silly games Margot (Michelle Williams) and Lou (Seth Rogen) played. The way we have of being silly with our partners is probably the most distinguishing thing about partnerships. The exact type of silliness can't be transported, as is clearly demonstrated when Margot spends time…

Straight up, this movie looks absolutely gorgeous. Some dude named Luc Montpellier is the cinematographer and I think that the Canadian government should pay this guy a salary of fifty thousand dollars a year, for the rest of his life, just because of how gorgeous this movie looks. I guarantee that Toronto has never, and will never, look better in a film. All the colors are rich & vibrant, and the camera movement is out of sight. See this movie just to see how gorgeous it looks. Now, on to the film itself.

I see the film as the idea of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl put into a real world person and how terrible that idea actually is. The character…

Review In A Nutshell:

Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz is a frustrating experience, it provides audiences with a look at the difficulties of marriage, how there will be days where one would lost that sense of spark, and everyday becomes mundane and uneventful; protagonist Margot is finding herself slowly frustrated with her position, craving for something more, which an offer does arise with her across the street neighbour, Daniel.

Polley simply didn’t want the film to be your run of the mill take on marriage, friendships, and temptations; it attempts to become something much more, by attempting to flesh out the protagonist, provide her with complexities that make her feel like a real character, rather than a tool to push…

Take This Waltz is a frustrating movie. The story of a woman in a happy but stagnant marriage who contemplates an affair with someone new, there is a lot to like here. In particular, I think the film does a very good job depicting how a relationship becomes stagnant. Seth Rogen's Lou is not a bad guy, in fact he clearly loves Michelle Williams' Margot, but he's also not fully attentive to her needs. Moreover, he's totally content, and she's getting bored. Writer/director Sarah Polley does a fantastic job depicting this without vilifying either party, and I also thought Rogen and Williams built a very believable couple. Unfortunately, the whole movie falls apart when it comes to Daniel, the man…