Take This Waltz

Film (2011)

With Michelle Williams (Margot), Seth Rogen (Lou Rubin), Luke Kirby (Daniel), Sarah Silverman (Geraldine)

Margot (Michelle Williams) and Daniel (Luke Kirby), both in their late twenties, sit next to one another on an airplane returning to Toronto. They flirt and take a cab home together from the airport and it turns out, unbenownst to both of them,that they are close neighbors. But Margot and Lou (Seth Rogen) have been married for five years. They appear to have a fun and affectionate relationship, but something about Daniel has caught Margot’s attention. She broods about this and, of course, sees Daniel on the street where they all live. They have a series of encounters which call into question her marriage with Lou.

This struck me as an appallingly bad movie, caused mostly by sophomoric writing. There was almost no point at which I felt that the script gave even a half-decent sense of the real issues involved.

Margot comes across not as a young woman smitten with sudden love, but as an indulgent, selfish, shallow and irresponsible young spouse. And Daniel, rather than as a overwhelmingly desirable heartthrob, is written as a kind of thoughtlessly charming gigolo.

One can certainly imagine how sudden passionate love might intrude on a marriage. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina treats that subject compellingly. But, unfortunately, here, neither the sense of compelling passion, nor a convincing treatment of the complexities it creates, is present in any way.

The faux-aggressive banter that passes for love twaddle between husband and wife, and between the two errant lovers almost from their point of meeting, is a ridiculous and overused technique. It is meant to convey playful engagement, but it seems false, and it goes on and on and on.

There is a subplot involving Geraldine (Sarah Silverman) as Lou’s presumably reformed alcoholic sister. Silverman’s acting is overly histrionic and not effective for the role of an alcoholic, and the ineptly crafted script does her no help at all.

Michelle Williams, a decent actress, who was very good as Alma, wife of Ennis (Heath Ledger), one of the cowboy lovers in the film Brokeback Mountain (2005), comes across here, unfortunately, as dispassionate, uncharismatic and not believable as the object of a major infatuation.

Seth Rogen is the one bright light in this dim film. His acting is very good and he is quite believable and affecting as the cuckolded husband. He has frequently played comedic schlub roles, but here he is used in a more subtle way as a leading man, loveable, without being a heartthrob.

In addition to everything else, there are scenes of completely gratuitous and unnecessary full body nudity. Employed artistically, film nudity can be effective, but here it seems like pure indulgence.

The subject matter of this film – the potential conflict between passion and commitment – is indeed very important. But the execution here is so superficial and ineffective that it feels like a betrayal of that important subject matter.

– BADMan