REVIEW: 'Take This Waltz'

Indie romantic-drama about 28-year-old Margot (Michelle Williams), who is happily married to Lou (Seth Rogen) a cookbook author. But when she meets Daniel (Luke Kirby), their new nextdoor neighbour, their mutual attraction strains Margot's belief in her marriage. Now playing nationwide.

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Michelle Williams is the go-to screen darling for wistful and heartbroken. It’d be a frigid viewer indeed who didn’t sigh for her in Brokeback Mountain or Blue Valentine, and her Oscar-nominated turn as Marilyn Monroe had that vulnerable, poor-me quality nailed.

Williams anchors Take This Waltz with another strong performance, although her Margot is a trickier character to sympathise with. Whether you’re rooting for her to hook up with the brooding neighbour Daniel (Luke Kirby) or stay with loveable hubby Lou (Seth Rogen doing drama) will probably depend on the emotional baggage you’ve brought to the cinema – preferably not in the seat next to you.

Sarah Polley, the young Canadian actor-turned-director who has already shown remarkable maturity with her debut feature Away from Her, picks at the scabs of these 20-somethings’ relationships. Margot mopes about in a Hipstamatic-toned world, with her blue toenails and cutesy wardrobe, gazing and wondering whether to buy that ticket to Cheatsville and leave her comfortable life in rubble.

This isn’t your average romantic film where the audience sits like God, waiting for the lovestruck couple to overcome obstacles and embrace. Polley’s characters live in the murky real world. They’re awkward, lusty, funny and raw.

There’s a fantastic communal shower scene that I’ll go out on a limb and say could only be directed by a female filmmaker. Margot, her sister-in-law (an unexpectedly great Sarah Silverman) and an aquarobics class of aging ladies are shown full frontal nude but not at all sexualised. The years are written on the older women’s lumpy bodies as if to say right or wrong, the decisions you make are what shapes your life and you wear them, always.

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