The central love affair at the heart of this summer flick is the love of the world class city which is the setting for this romantic drama. This should come as no surprise when we consider that native Torontonian Sarah Polley used an all Canadian cast. In fact most of the lead cast members met on the set of Degrassi High- the mythical Canadian public television drama which was produced in the late 1980's. Polley also remained in contact with Sarah Silverman in spite of Silverman being fired from the second season of Degrassi following charges of public indecency following an incident at a Degrassi public appearance in a Mississauga mall. The richness of the directing and acting are complemented by the beautifully shot city where the characters live. One gets the feeling that those characters naturally exist there in a way they would not in, say, Los Angeles or New York. The centrality of Canadian identity of the story is made most explicit in the climactic scene where Rogen wearing a Toronto Jersey and Kirby in a Montreal Jersey play a hockey game to decide who will get the girl. In case the point was missed, the person to whom Rogen turns for advice is his father the mounted police officer who instructs him on his love life thus: … Expand

Boring and even somewhat smug, this movie was a big disappointment. As someone who liked Sarah Polley's last film I have to wonder what went wrong here. The script was particularly lame, with awful dialogue clanging like it was written in a hurry. Michelle Williams goes a long way to redeeming the formulaic plot but this was still one of the worst indie films I've seen this year.

Despite creative cinematography, a promising and appealing cast, the writing in "Take This Waltz" was disappointing and the story lacked drama, pace, even basic logic.

Way to take a fantastic actress and put her in a cliche romance movie with no depth to it. I give this movie one point for Michelle Williams's performance, but the story was annoyingly generic. It's the kind of script you'd expect to see for an episode of Hannah Montana, without the cute, catchy songs, and the self awareness as to what its real merits, or lack thereof, are. The thing is, it's a romance story that I can only see appealing to young kids, but it's geared towards adults, and features adult content, so I really can't see it appealing to anyone. Michelle Williams gives the movie more credit than it deserves with her performance. It's still far from one of the best performances she's given, but in this movie, and with this script, it's like hearing Frank Sinatra sing a song written by Justin Bieber, if Justin Bieber tried to write adult lyrics.… Expand

Beautifully done. The most authentic film from a woman's point of view I've ever seen. Even the nude scenes are different than what a man would have done. Sarah Polley is brilliant.

This is the first movie in years I walked out on, even asked and got my money back. The cinema manager said he understood as everyone was saying how bad it was. Badly written drivel, come on the woman's wants to write, the man is an artist who pulls a rickshaw! The in and out Of focus, the angst..do not waste your money nor your time

This film blew me away with its honest and unabashed look at monogamy. Michelle Williams is stunning ( as always) in her depiction of a young married woman who had married her best friend instead of her lover (which many of us do in our first marriages) Seen from a mature woman's viewpoint, I thought Polley addressed some real issues surrounding marriage, love and infidelity. Well Done!

Take This Waltz can be a bit pretentious at times and the characters, particularly Margot, can be frustratingly immature and self-absorbed. But the movie sneaks up on you and punches you in the gut when you least expect it. An honest examination of marriage, infidelity and the naive notion that, to paraphrase Sarah Silverman's character, the right choice solves everything.

After seeing the reviews, I was very disappointed when I saw the movie. Although Michelle Williams and Susan Silverman gave outstanding performances, the male characters were unrealistic. I couldn't believe that Williams's character was interested in either of them.

This film is utter drivel. A waste of an hour plus of your life that you will be begging back for. The plot is so weak it is practically nonexistent. Woman unhappy and bored with marriage leaves to go crazy for a bit, then settle back into boring and unhappy. What a waste of freaking time. There is no climax, no resolution, not even a headline, and certainly not a story worth watching. The main character finally is shown smiling and happy on a fair ride that is somehow inside a disco dance building in the final sequence. So the message is save your self-induced pathetic life by visiting the fair or a good amusement park in the first place rather than shattering someone else's life? Don't even watch this on netflix or amazon instant. Save yourself the time and effort.… Expand

What is new and exotic today will eventually, albeit incrementally, morph into routine. Superficially, this applies to the latest products such as vehicles and electronics, but dig a little deeper, and it concerns people. Every now and then, you will meet a person you just connect with. Your wits match, you laugh at the same things, they are outrageously attractive, and you abhor the thought of saying goodbye at the end of the day and going your separate ways. What compounds this situation and serves as the basis for an outstanding film is, perhaps one of the two people who are magnetically drawn together is already married.

Margot (Michelle Williams) is one of those freelance writers who frequently says she wants to be a writer, but she has not started yet. In the meantime, she travels to Nova Scotia to write an update to the official pamphlet for a colonial era village. While there, she meets Daniel (Luke Kirby) who has coincidentally journeyed to the island to sketch and paint. Why the coincidence? They happen to live across the street from one another back in Ontario. Immediately straining credibility limits, Take This Waltz begins on thin ice but very quickly settles down into an entirely engrossing and mesmerizing feature. Margot and Daniel verbally spar with one another but keep finding ways to bump into one another around town. All of this would be much easier on everyone's guilty feelings if Michelle's husband, Lou (Seth Rogen), was never around or ignored his wife, or was just unpleasant in some overt way. However, Lou is a genuinely nice guy who loves his wife and their situation together. Michelle and Lou have been married for five years, live in a quaint house, and play funny games when the alarm goes off in the morning about who loves the other one more. Lou cooks most of the day because he writing a cookbook all about chicken; this sounds contrived but it works because the audience has never seen it before. Lou's sister, Geraldine (Sarah Silverman), also pops on screen every now and again as Michelle's friend and to carry a small sub-plot as a recovering alcoholic.

Sarah Polley's previous film, the wonderful Away From Her (2006), was about a very hard subject, the onset of Alzheimer's disease in one partner and their institutionalization. At first, the audience assumes Take This Waltz is a break from such weighty subjects and will be a much lighter affair, maybe even a romantic comedy. Oh, but don't be fooled. This film is just as dramatic and heavy. Michelle Williams spends an unusual amount of time in tears. She truly loves her husband and is happy with their lot in life. She cannot conceive of deliberately hurting him. But Daniel just may be her soul mate, if there is such a thing. Their conversations together are profound and meaningful. Every member of the audience will walk out of the theater talking about the scene between Margot and Daniel while they are having martinis. Sarah Polley wrote a very strong screenplay and the dialogue creates scenes of immense magnitude and feeling even though there are just two people chatting over a small table. This is also a strong cast for what is obviously a very low budget independent film. It is good to know talent still gravitates towards quality. Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, and Sarah Silverman are some very noticeable names when they appear on a movie poster and stand out even more when they are attached to such a small film effort. As for Williams, this was a much better showcase for her talent than last year's My Week with Marilyn, even though she was nominated for an Academy Award for that. In fact, her performance here blows that one out of the water. Do yourself a favor and seek out this film. It will most likely be hard to find, but it contains some of the strongest acting, creative writing, and enjoyable filmmaking of the year so far. If not for the clunky meeting in the beginning and an overly long and choppy coda at the end, Take This Waltz was almost perfect. Bravo Sarah Polley.… Expand

his movie had an interesting theme that was explored in a cinematically artistic way, but unfortunately, the film hesitated, stumbled, fell down a winding path, and landed in an awkward place. The eternal question of which situation is preferable--a loving marriage with the comfort of history, family and endearing quirks, eccentricities, and traditions, or a passionate love affair that sends one into outer space and around the moon and back before the inevitable crash landing on planet Earth? This film explores that dilemma, but the resolution is vague and ambiguous. Margot, played by Michelle Williams, meets a handsome stranger in Nova Scotia, Daniel, played by Luke Kirby, who happens to be a tourist at Fort Louisbourg in Cape Breton, where Margot has been assigned to rewrite their marketing brochure. Margot and Daniel meet briefly at the fort in an encounter which involves a re-enactment put on for the tourists. Daniel then shows up sitting right next to her on the plane back to Toronto, and then shares a cab with her at the airport only to find that they live across the street from each other. This is difficult to believe, but in this film, fiction is stranger than truth. They have already fallen in love and neither one can admit it, because Margot's 5-year marriage to Lou, played by Seth Rogen, who has to do serious acting for once in a film that is actually not of the gross and vulgar variety, is precious to her. (If they are supposed to unhappily married, the script fails to convey that at every level.) Margot, however, is already madly in love with neighbor Daniel, despite the fact that he is a frustrated, unknown artist who ekes out a living as a rickshaw driver, which is a Toronto tourist-industry phenomenon. Her husband Lou is a successful cookbook author. Even though it is sociologically well documented that women value a man's stature in the world more than they value looks, Margot not only falls in love with this drifter, she leaves a good husband for him, when it is obvious that she had only two choices: 1) resist him; 2) have a brief affair and get him out of her system. Before Margot leaves her husband, there is a period where the film intelligently explores the never-never land of being both happily married and madly in love with someone else, a situation that is mostly fantasy as long as nothing happens. Just when you think Margot is going to become strong in her resolve and not make a serious mistake, which would have involved having a scenario where Daniel's magical power over her gets destroyed, she caves in and leaves her husband. Thus begins the bizarre last act of the film, where Daniel moves into a fabulous Toronto loft that he can somehow afford as a rickshaw driver in a city where real estate is prohibitively expensive. Margot moves in with him, and at last they can make love, which turns out to be not just wild passion, but kinky sex involving third parties. This is completely out of synch with the essential nature of their romance, but no explanation for their behavior is offered. And finally, just like in a marriage to a nice guy, the two eventually settle into a routine where they spend a lot of time watching television. In the end, does Margot realize she made a mistake? Perhaps, but director Sarah Polley offers no firm resolution, and we never know if Margot can return to her husband or resign herself to life with a rickshaw-driving partner. Or if, when all the dust settles, she ends up with nothing and no one, but without regret because it was worth the ride, or the waltz, as in Take This Waltz, and who better than Leonard Cohen can emblemize a life philosophy based solely on carpe diem.… Expand

Take this Waltz is a mellow movie, which takes a deep (and sometimes cynical) look at marital dissatisfaction. I liked this one a lot; thanks to its great mix of quirk and sorrow, and curve balls at the end that made it even better. Michelle Williams gives another excellent performance in an already excellent career; as the neurotic wife grappling with infidelity. Sarah Silverman also gives a surprisingly solid performance. And Sarah Polley knows how to direct a movie, adding a lot of style and complexities to what could have been a straightforward and immediate film. She films this movie with bright, upbeat imagery (thanks, in part to the cinematographer) that appropriately mingles with the sorrow that lies within each of the movie's characters and her overall examination on infidelity was quite insightful. The movie is erotic, smoothly edited, and even though the dialogue was a little hammy at times, it was really quite good, naturalistic and worked well with the quirk.… Expand

An apt commentary on this generations view on marriage. Williams does a great job as the wife with eyes for a man who has moved in across the street. Rogen is more than serviceable as the husband who is loved but has become as uninteresting to his wife as the chicken that he cooks for the cookbook he is writing. Williams and Rogen's scenes are among my favorite in the film, and I spent most of my time wondering why she preferred the man across the street who is played, rather boringly, by Luke Kirby. While my main issue with this movie is that a good portion of the dialogue is a a little to on the nose, for the most part I thought this film was very well written and I love the overall message that is being sent. While this movie is about the characters and relationships within the story it is worth noting that for this type of movie this film is beautifully shot and never dull to look at. I highly recommend this movie… Expand

While nowhere near exhibiting the same level of maturity and insight displayed in her directorial debut, Sarah Polley's 'Take This Waltz' solidifies her position as a great up-and-coming director and benefits from subtle character observations and affecting performances by Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman (the latter two departing from their comedic origins to grace us with observed dramatic turns). Though in hindsight her character comes off as a bit irritating and moody, only Williams could bring her out with such a likeable mopiness. Without her bravura performance, the film would've collapsed upon itself. As a character study, solid observations are made, but the overall statements made feel slight and muted. At times the dialogue shifts from deeply thought-provoking to amateurish and the eventual climax loses some steam. Still, the heated, sensual tone is quite potent and the acting is grade A.… Expand

Sarah Polley, in her second outing as director, has made an absolutely beautiful film with Take This Waltz. Starring Michelle Williams as Margot and Seth Rogen as her husband of five years, Lou. As the film begins, we see a blurry Margot baking muffins. As the shot comes into focus, we see the beads of sweat on her face and the sunlight filtering through the leaves outside. We are shown her bare feet on a wooden floor as she puts the muffins in the oven to bake. She sinks to the floor as a man enters the kitchen with his back to the camera. We find out that the man is Lou. As the films progresses, it offers up a portrait of comfortable love, married love, occasionally restless love, and frustrated love between the pair. Margot is a freelance writer, and Lou is writing a chicken cookbook.He can be found at the stove most of the time and is clearly distracted with his work. Although she tries to be affectionate with him, he doesn't always find the time to stop and look at this wife. There is an awkward anniversary dinner at which Lou doesn't understand the need to talk to Margot or ask about how she is doing. Doesn't he already know all that he needs to know? And in bed, we see the familiar lovemaking of two people who have been together for a long time. In other words, the excitement seen at the beginning of a relationship has been replaced with something comfortable. Lou's family is also a huge presence in their lives, with regular "chicken tastings" at their home. His sister, Geraldine (Sarah Silverman) is a recovering alcoholic fearful of a relapse. She is quite fond of her sister-in-law, spending time with her at water aerobics and talking on the front porch. Sober for 10 months, she is the first to sense Margot's discontent. On a business trip, Margot meets Daniel (Luke Kirby), an amateur artist and professional rickshaw driver. The chemistry between them is immediate and intensifies when they realize that he lives across the street from her Toronto home. Margot is quite restless, expressing a fear of transitions, a fear of being afraid, a fear of being between things. These fears become real as she and Daniel become closer while at the same time, she remains somewhat loyal and somewhat committed to Lou. I say "somewhat" because even though they almost never touch, they share an extremely intimate and erotic moment over martinis that remain as untouched as Daniel and Margot.

The metaphor of a waltz appears throughout the film. There is a lovely scene where Daniel and Margot swim together in sync with one another that is only interrupted when, carried away by the moment, Daniel touches Margot on the ankle. The spell is then broken and Margot runs away. A form of dance can also be seen in the interactions between Margot and Lou, at once familiar and slightly out of sync. Margot is forced to make a decision regarding her life realizing that she can't stay in between things. And as in real life, her decision affects all of the lives around her. Sarah Polley does a superb job as director. Using the camera as a sort of dance partner, she demonstrates the fluid passage of time while the characters remain in almost the same place. This technique is seen as Margot lies quietly on her bed after being rebuffed by Lou, and also in the scenes of Margot adjusting to her new life with Daniel. The muffin-making scene is repeated at the end of the film as if to say that Margot goes through so much to end up back at the same place where she started. The actors in this film turn in very strong performances, particularly Rogen in a very restrained, dramatic role, and Silverman, surprisingly adult and mature. And Michelle Williams once again demonstrates why she is an acting force to be reckoned with. And new to me, Luke Kirby is sexy and vulnerable at the same time.

I strongly recommend this film. It is not just another romantic comedy or chick flick. It is a thought-provoking, layered story that will stay with you long after you leave the theater. Thanks for reading my review and remember, you just got buzzed!… Expand