Take This Waltz Review

What is love? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more. The immortal words sung by 90s pop star Haddaway but they could just have easily been spoken by Seth Rogen’s character Lou in Sarah Polley’s wonderful and painfully honest drama Take This Waltz.

Lou is the kind, gentle (slightly boring) husband to Michelle Williams’ Margot. Margot and Lou have been happily married for five years and their relationship is all brilliantly observed affection and baby talk. However, after a series of coincidences, Margot meets their new neighbour, the handsome, spontaneous, Daniel (Luke Kirby). There’s an instant, electric connection between them that is in stark contrast to Margot’s relationship with Lou.

Although Margot’s subsequent actions are unsympathetic, I found it deeply affecting in the way it portrayed its characters and their emotions and it’s resonated with me ever since. I left the cinema conflicted about my feelings towards Margot but it is testament to Michelle Williams’ great performance that I still found myself empathising with her.

It’s all very indie, with every scene seemingly shot at magic hour and there’s some hip music choices but it’s one of my very favourite films of the year so far and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

[embed width=550]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbxJz2AGWXw[/embed]