Take This Waltz
2011 116 mins. Rated R.
Margot: “I’m afraid of being afraid.”
Daniel: “Sounds like the most dangerous thing in the world.”
Take This Waltz – Columbia
During a recent girl’s night, I was faced with the dreadful, if not tired, question: “Who is YOUR girl crush?!” (Yick)! It occurred to me I had no idea. My incredulous friends replied, “But come on… Mila Kunis, Angelina Jolie?” Suffice it to say, I felt a little interrogated by this imbibed, demanding she-chorus.
I have since discovered what is actually meant by girl crush, that is, who you would like to be your friend (basically), not who you HAVE to make out with. In any event, I soon knew my answer: Michelle Williams. It’s official, world: Michelle Williams is my girl crush (Thora Birch is almost tied). So there.
Williams won critics over in Brokeback Mountain as the simple, child-ladened wife married to a gay cowboy (or man in love with another man, dude). In Blue Valentine, she was the despondent wife with hopes and dreams, married to an aimless yet loving husband. In Take this Waltz, which shares it’s name with the Leonard Cohen song (AWESOME), Williams proves, once again, her talents for gracefully portraying the joy-defective wife.
In Waltz, directed by Sarah Polley (once actress), Williams gives a solemn portrayal of a modern hipster wife, Margot, living in Canada. I inferred she was married young to Seth Rogen’s, Lou, who is quite smitten and tender with his young wife. Margot is a woman who constantly seems at odds with her own happiness, or at least she is incapable of knowing how to attain it, throughout this film. Sarah Silverman brings a serious yet funny performance as Lou’s alcoholic sister, Geraldine. Silverman delivers some great lines, and she just so happens to be in her birthday suit (along with Williams) in a stark shower scene, where women of all shapes and ages seem divided on screen (younger on one side, older on another), both literally and figuratively on the issue of boredom in marriage and affairs.
Margot and Lou’s marriage seems perfectly loving and idealistic, however, something sometimes seems suppressed between the two. Any real negative feelings each have toward the other manifests itself in teasing and (very irritating) sado-childlike baby talk. (“I love you so much, I wanna mash your brains in with a mallet” type stuff).
There are also some awkward moments of sexual rejection: Margot shoots down Lou’s kisses post before-mentioned drivel, claiming she doesn’t like to mesh the play talk with the actual foreplay. Here we catch a glimpse of Lou’s frustration. Obviously, all this was meant to show us the lack of mature communication skills between the two.
Rogen plays a heartbreaking, amorous husband. The normal flippant humor is absent (THANK GOD), and replaced with a cozy, good-hearted nature made even blander by his married role. In the story, this is represented by his character publishing a chicken cookbook. JUST. CHICKEN. (kudos to Polley for her humor).
In her seemingly happy marital nest, Margot eats Lou’s chicken every night, and soon after randomly meeting Daniel (Luke Kirby) on a business trip, and then again on an airplane, she finds herself undeniably attracted to him. When they share a cab and she learns Daniel just happens to live across the street from her and Lou, she is stunned and clearly nervous.
The boredom is a hole in her life she begins to fill by watching and waiting for him, meeting him secretly and joining him in a romantic underwater waltz at the city pool (when he reaches to touch her she freaks and leaves), and indulging in illicit conversations with him in his apartment.
Initially, Daniel, turned me off with his forward philosophical questions to Margot. He seemed so cliche, however, by the time she ended up in his apartment, in their initial meetup, his intensity was, well, not so intense. He asks Margot, “What’s the matter with you, generally? You seem restless.” He continues. . . “One side is not living up to its full potential.” Williams portrays Margot’s dispassionate and melancholy side (the distraction when Daniel walks by her window, secret swim meets, and her overall passivity) so well that his candid question almost begs to be answered by all of us watching. What is going on inside of her? What is it that will make her happy? Daniel? Lou? None of them?! Ahhhhh!
Polley’s imagery pops with color. It seems playful, similar to Lou and Margot’s relationship; yet it contrasts with Margot’s inner dispassion and complicated nature. The music is fun and hip, with a Leonard Cohen-inspired title. Intense, but funny at times (pretty uncomfortable for me to watch unravel), the plot flows naturally, with candid, if not slightly pretentious dialogue/characters. This heady verbal play was something, despite some critics admonishments regarding its pretentiousness, that I felt I could gladly stomach.
The movie didn’t seem self-consciously over the top; rather it kind of seemed insightful. Also, Polley, who has a knack for dialogue and a perceptive style which effectively shows the nuances of relationship behavior in true-to-life situations makes up for any of this (though I’m not sure the characters could always speak as eloquently as they do).
My favorite scene is when Margot finds herself exhilarated on the Scrambler rider with Daniel, and instanteously, when the music dies, the ride stops, and the lights go out, her expression (and his) turns from absolute freeing bliss to grave disappointment. Both look as if they have been smacked in the face with something, perhaps the truth of where it is leading for them? Interestingly, in the last scene of the movie Margot rides the Scrambler alone, with a look of undying satisfaction, and what looks like pure fulfillment.
Favorite quotes by characters:
Lou: (To Margot) “Some things you do in life, they stick.”
Daniel: (To Margot) “You seem restless. Not just now, in a kind of permanent way.”
Margot: (To Daniel) “I’m afraid of being afraid.”
Geraldine: (To Margot) “Life has a gap in it–it just does–you don’t go crazy trying to fill it like some lunatic…”
