The Good: One or two lines, Direction, Moments of performance
The Bad: Predictable plot, Indie look/feel, Mundane characters that failed to connect
The Basics: An archetypal indie temptation drama, Take This Waltz has no real spark or zest to it.
For the sake of this argument, I want to posit that there are, essentially, two types of independent films. The first style of indie film is a movie that the Hollywood system ignores and/or is put together by creative forces who simply do not have the resources and connections to get the film made by a professional studio. Artists or simply tenacious enough with their vision, those people go ahead and make the film they wanted to anyway. I have a lot of respect for that type of artistry, even though the quality is usually less than what a polished, studio-made film would be. The other type of independent film, it seems, is the type of low-budget movie written/directed/starred in by established people in the entertainment industry who want to make something “different” for the purpose of making their own independent film. It’s the difference between people who strive to make the best film possible vs. people who set out to make something deliberately contrarian (or with the appearance of being off the beaten path). I am discovering that I have a lot less respect for the latter style of independent film, not because I am against artistic freedom, but rather because so very many of the independent films made and populated by established Hollywood talents seem so similar. They are most often moody dramas, with the appearance of intimacy, wrestling with an issue that seems vastly overblown, and nine times out of ten features at least one significant shot of the protagonist, in transit, backlit. I swear, this style of independent film exists almost entirely for Oscarbait, film festivals, and so the talents involved can tell their Hollywood friends about the small, independent film they are working on. There is a whole masturbatory feel to the odd formulaic tendencies surrounding this style of independent film.
I mention this all at the outset of my review of Take This Waltz, a film I knew absolutely nothing about before sitting down to watch it today, because this is exactly the type of independent that looks and feels like an independent film (of the second style). I realized this when, very early in the movie, I actually said aloud to myself, “The writer is working so hard here to make these lines so witty that she’s not actually making characters, just lines.” Writer and director Sarah Polley, who I recall enjoying in Go (reviewed here!) seems so determined to make a quirky, non-Hollywood film that she instead makes the archetypal indie film, but without any zest, originality, or anything truly new or special. Take This Waltz combines the worst elements of an independent film with the most banal Hollywood traditions.
Meeting while on vacation, Margot and Daniel end up on a plane sitting next to one another and striking up a surprisingly intimate conversation. Margot admits to Daniel that she essentially scams the airports to get transit through them in a wheelchair because of her fear of missing a connection. Their vacation relationship (as it is) is complicated when they share a cab and realize they actually live across the street from one another. Margot returns to her seasoned marriage with Lou, a chicken cookbook writer, but finds herself watching out the window for Daniel, who runs a rickshaw around Los Angeles.
Daniel follows Margot to her swim exercise class, they go out for a martini, and they flirt. Margot tries to resist her obvious attraction for Daniel, while she starts to articulate the distance she feels from Lou. The more time they spend together, the more interested they become in one another and the more difficult it is for them to stay apart.
First, to contradict myself very slightly, I am not at all against cleverness. I like clever, but sometimes it works to the detriment of the work in question. In Take This Waltz the most clever the film actually gets is when the young ladies at Margot’s swim class are talking about relationships and the older women acknowledge the truth that every new relationship gets old. I like that. Old and seasoned is not inherently bad; nothing lasts unknown and exciting forever. If it works, it becomes familiar. Take That Waltz expresses that remarkably well. Also, the “long term joke” of Lou pouring cold water on Margot while she is in the shower every day is surprisingly delightful and well-executed.
Unfortunately, so much of the rest of the film is banal and obvious. The conflict is an overblown one that is predicated on the idea that women and men cannot form a friendship without it being about possessing romantic tension. Margot and Daniel have a conversation and it transitions pretty immediately from annoyance to sexual tension and that felt contrived. The conflict itself, though, is one that is blown out of proportion: people who don’t want to have affairs, don’t. It is, actually, just that simple. Love is work, but passion fades and the people who want real love who want monogamous relationships have them. Movies like Take This Waltz try to make it into a big, inevitable conflict, but it seldom actually is for the people who buy the first premise.
Polley also uses the utterly unsurprising Hollywood conceit that puts the unsatisfied woman suddenly falling for – and drawing the attention of – perhaps the best looking man on the face of the planet. Luke Kirby, who plays Daniel, has a distinctly obvious Hollywood good look to him and the fact that he is stealing Michelle Williams’s character away from Seth Rogen feels far less interesting than the opposite way might have been.
So, that leaves the acting. Independent films are more often than not the chance for established actors to play roles that stretch their talents. Take This Waltz fails to do that. Michelle Williams is known for heavily dramatic, independent roles, so her performance of Margot is unsurprising for her talents. While this might seem like Sarah Silverman’s big acting challenge – she plays Lou’s alcoholic sister, Geraldine – she still plays the role in a familiar way. When Geraldine has a party to celebrate her sobriety, the voice is very much Sarah Silverman’s when she gives a toast. Having seen Silverman in dramatic roles, like in Peep World (reviewed here!), the role of Geraldine does not extend her range at all. Even Seth Rogen seems to be playing more to his strengths as Lou. That said, when Lou confronts Margot and Rogen gets red-faced with anger and frustration, his physical performance is arguably the most nuanced of his career and in that way, Rogen is successful at using Take This Waltz to showcase something new.
To her credit, Sarah Polley directs Take This Waltz well, which is a nice change from the last indie film I saw - Like Crazy (reviewed here!), which was just clunky and cut horribly – but even with that, she failed to engage the viewer. Take This Waltz is a stiflingly familiar marital disintegration/temptation film that fails to pop or present anything truly original, or even interesting.
For other works with Michelle Williams, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Dawson’s Creek - Season 1
Brokeback Mountain
Shutter Island
My Week With Marilyn
3/10
For other film reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the film reviews I have written!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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