Take This Waltz is an affair movie. The established couple, Margot (Michelle Williams) and Lou (Seth Rogen), isn’t especially dynamic or intriguing. But these two aren’t supposed to be world-beaters; they are us. The honeymoon is over; Lou and Margot have progressed to marriage, phase II: sharing the bathroom during bodily function time (shudder) and spoiling spontaneous romance with pet peeves. They aren’t bad or mean to one another and the marriage does work; they’ve just forgotten romance … or worse yet, grown beyond it. Although, to be fair, if Michelle Williams were my wife, disrobed in front of me and stepped in the shower and the only thought in my mind is, “let’s play a joke on her,” well, I think I shouldn’t be surprised if she were receptive to the attentions of another man.
That other man is Daniel (Luke Kirby). He’s a crappy artist and earns his living driving a rickshaw in Toronto (what does he do in the winter?). I know, men … you want to scoff … don’t. Just don’t.
There is nudity in Take This Waltz (see below), but the sexiest scenes are without. This is a scene movie – some scenes don’t work, but the ones that do are incredible:
- In a bar that looks more like a coffee shop, Daniel voices aloud how he would treat the opportunity to kiss Margot. There is nothing but suggestion here, just voice, and it goes from innocent to indulgent, well past racy. I
imagine every woman wants to be talked to like this by a welcome suitor at least once in her lifetime. - In a public swimming pool, the two are alone and the camera follows as they swim, weaving in and out of one another in constant sexy moving arcs, never touching. In fact, when Daniel makes the mistake of reaching for Margot’s ankle, the magic of the scene ends *poof* She immediately gets out of the pool and says, “this has been a mistake” and that’s that.
- On an amusement park ride, the two share a bond of dreamy union spinning in the dark to “Video Killed the Radio Star”, enjoying the excitement of the ride and their own attraction. The feeling is palpable. There’s almost something sexual about what they share. And then, just as suddenly, the ride stops, the music quits, the lights turn on and the moment has ended. Both look thunderstruck, “what just happened?”
As the title suggests, Take This Waltz is a dance around the reality of the everyday, the commonplace, the mundane. Romance can happen without anything physical taking place; it’s all a ballet of mood and light and feeling and implication. After every meeting with Daniel, Margot goes home and tries to take it out, so to speak, on Lou. Her guilty conscience manifests into playtime for hubby. If you see this in your own woman, fellas, don’t make the wrong move.
Perv corner: Get an eyeful of Michelle Williams, folks. Sarah Polley is not cheap with the detail. For those of you who felt cheated by, perhaps, Ms. Williams lack of nude indulgence (on camera) as Marilyn Monroe, try Take This Waltz. Among other moments, there is an extended locker room shower scene, thirtysomethings on this end, sixtysomethings on that. If realistic female nudity is on your wish list, this is Christmas.
Pretty Margot/doesn’t mess around as a rule.
Oblivious Lou/is a chicken cookin’ fool.
What did it take/for another to catch her eye?
Tragedy is/they’re just like you and I.
Rated R, 116 Minutes
D: Sarah Polley
W: Sarah Polley
Genre: Temptation
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: “What if … ?”
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: People who view even fleeting extramarital thoughts as infidelity.
