Take This Waltz

Sarah Polley's second feature, following the excellent Away From Her, is Take This Waltz, an earnest film about one women's struggle to understand her desires. It's an uneven film, but is highlighted by an incandescant performance by Michelle Williams.

Williams plays Margo, who at the beginning of the film returns from a visit to Montreal back to Ontario. On the plane she meets Dan (Luke Kirby), who looks like a contestant on The Bachelorette. They strike up a conversation, and the dialogue sets up the metaphor--Williams is afraid of missing connections; she's afraid of being inbetween things. She also says she is afraid of being afraid.

She's married to Seth Rogen, a cookbook author (the recipes all contain chicken), and on the surface they seem to have an ideal marriage. But as the film moves on, she begins to be unsatisfied. With superficial things, they are compatible, such as frequently using baby talk or otherwise acting in a childish manner. When Williams indicates she has problems, he has no idea what she is talking about.

Williams becomes ever drawn to Kirby, and it would be a spoiler to indicate what happens. One can wonder if Williams makes a mistake, as her sister-in-law (Sarah Silverman) tells her she has made. Or is it a kind of liberation? The film leaves this up to the viewer, an adult way of presenting a story.

At times the story gets a little soggy, and Williams, though brilliant in the role, is at times so passive you want to grab her shoulders and shake her. But Polley has a wonderful eye and ear. My favorite image is when Williams and Kirby are riding a carnival ride while "Video Killed the Radio Star" is on the soundtrack. Another magic moment is when Williams and Kirby are alone in a swimming pool, doing a water ballet, but the magic is spoiled when he touches her.

It was interesting to watch a movie about a woman who is afraid of her own feelings, a subject that could be deadly, but Polley manages to make it captivating.