CINEMA: Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen in Take This Waltz
Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen in Take This Waltz
Published: 16 August, 2012
by DAN CARRIER
Take This Waltz
Directed by Sarah Polley
Certificate 15
Rating: 2 Out Of 5 Stars
THIS over-cooked, angsty, relationship drama must have something going for it.
It will divide opinion.
I can see it being the absolute favourite of a whole demographic of film-goers, and being bracketed in years to come as a classic take on relationships.
But my toes curled in every scene.
Perhaps the fact it annoyed me so much means it is, subliminally, good?
No.
It was excruciating.
Margot (Michelle Williams) is a 28-year-old writer living with her pretty great husband Lou (Seth Rogen).
On a work trip she meets Daniel (Luke Kirby) and is instantly attracted to him.
She doesn’t want to cheat, but then she discovers he lives across the street.
It prompts a summer of circling as she battles with her lust and guilt.
Daniel is an objectionable, one-dimensional character.
He drags a rickshaw to earn a living, but he is a very talented painter who is too shy to exhibit.
We watch as the lovers try and work out what’s what, while poor Lou, who is writing a cookbook about chicken, is oblivious to the dastardly goings on.
The gist of the tale hinges on whether we should be happy for what we have, or should we continue to search for the Holy Grail of relationship happiness.
There isn’t an answer to this conundrum, though I suspect director Sarah Polley believes she has nailed it.
I despised it, perhaps more than I have ever despised a film, ever. It’s ridden with moralistic, preachy awfulness, and the hushed, whispered way each line is delivered, the shallow Boden-lifestyle characters, and Margot’s grotesquely childlike kookiness made my muscles spasm.
To highlight a particular scene would suggest one section was more skin-crawlingly awful than another, but there is one part that seemed to sum it all up: the errant pair go to a pool and, like synchronised swimmers, they swoop around each other, without touching.
It’s all very arty.
It was about as appetising as the matter in a blocked-up plughole in a municipal bath.
Forget the popcorn – pack a sickbag.