Take This Waltz (film)

Plot

Margot, a freelance writer, meets Daniel, an artist and rickshaw operator, while on a business trip, and although they immediately share some chemistry, she reveals to him that she is married. However, it turns out that Daniel is living across the street from Margot and her husband Lou in Toronto. Although Lou and Margot appear happy together, it becomes clear that Margot is not completely satisfied with her marriage, possibly aggravated by encountering Daniel. As the film progresses Margot and Daniel interact more and more until she ultimately leaves her husband to be with him. Lou is saddened, yet understanding. The audience is then shown a montage of Margot's new life with Daniel, including several brief sex scenes, though it is clear that she begins to regret leaving her husband. Geraldine, Lou's sister and a recovering alcoholic, confronts Margot (while drunk) and tells her that she should have just accepted that life has gaps and that changing relationships was not the answer.

Cast

Production

Pre-production, filming and post-production took place in 2010/2011 at locations in and around Toronto Ontario including at Pinewood Toronto Studios, Pearson International Airport, the Royal Cinema and in Louisbourg Nova Scotia. The film also served as Sarah Silverman's first time in which she appears on screen fully nude. During press interviews Silverman stated that she was "Very comfortable being nude on camera because it was not intended to be sexual at all, unlike men, women have no problem being naked in front of each other in a shower situation and can just carry on a normal conversation which is what Sarah Polley the film's director was trying to convey."

Release

Take This Waltz had its world premiere on September 11, 2011 at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film then played at the 31st annual Atlantic Film Festival and the 59th annual San Sebastián International Film Festival. At the end of September, Take This Waltz was shown at the 25th Edmonton International Film Festival and the Vancouver International Film Festivals. The film closed the Calgary International Film Festival and the Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival. In April 2012, Take This Waltz was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival. A month later it played at the Seattle International Film Festival.

On October 17, 2011, it was announced that Magnolia Pictures had acquired the US rights to Take This Waltz. They released the film through their Ultra VOD program on May 25, 2012, before releasing it to theatres on June 29, 2012. The film also opened to Canadian theatres on June 29. Take This Waltz was released on June 14, 2012 in Australia. It was released by StudioCanal on August 17, 2012 in the UK.

Home media

Take This Waltz was released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 23, 2012. It was released on Netflix streaming in June, 2017.

Box office

Take This Waltz earned $203,127 upon its opening weekend in Canada. The film opened to 27 theatres and landed at number one in the box office top five. In the US, Take This Waltz earned $137,019 during its opening weekend across 30 theatres. As of September 28, 2012, the film has grossed $1,239,692 in the US.

Critical response

The film has received generally positive reviews from critics. Film review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes classified the film as "fresh" with a 77% approval rating among 119 critics, with a rating average of 7 out of 10. Metacritic, which assigns a score of 1–100 to individual film reviews, gave Take This Waltz an average rating of 68 based on 34 reviews. Joshua Rothkopf from Time Out New York chose Take This Waltz as one of the publications "Top Ten Tribeca Film Festival 2012 picks". Rothkopf stated "her equally ambitious latest marks Polley as a serious explorer of broken relationships. Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen (more exposed than he's ever allowed himself to be) are married Torontonians who have settled into a too-comfortable domesticity. The simmering friction, caused in part by charming neighbour Luke Kirby, takes the film in surprising directions." Stephen Holden of The New York Times commented "The temptations and perils of 'the grass is always greener' syndrome aren't as gripping a subject as Alzheimer's, the topic of Ms. Polley's first film, Away From Her, but the movie radiates a melancholy glow."

Stella Papamichael, writing for Digital Spy, gave the film three out of five stars. She praised Polley's approach to the film calling it "different, fresh and exciting", but not as "well-balanced" as Away From Her. Papamichael added "Margot is an emotionally gritty role for Williams and she plays it brilliantly close to the edge, but she can seem at odds with a scenario that has more in common with a Mills & Boon fantasy than the real world." The Guardian's John Patterson proclaimed "Take This Waltz's practical wisdom about entropy in relationships and sense of resigned acceptance are leavened by an uncharacteristically active and talkative – and often very witty – performance from Williams." Justin Chang from Variety said "Given how quickly movie characters tend to fall into bed with one another, it's especially rewarding to see writer-director Sarah Polley wring maximum tension, humor and emotional complexity from a young wife's crisis of conscience in Take This Waltz. Despite a few tonal and structural missteps, this intelligent, perceptive drama proves as intimately and gratifyingly femme-focused as Polley's 2006 debut, Away From Her." Chang believed the film was "flat-out sexy enough" to appeal to audiences of either gender and praised Williams and Rogen's performances.

CBC News' film reviewer, Eli Glasner, gave Take This Waltz three out of five and stated "Although the film loses its footing near the end, adventurous movie fans should enjoy taking Polley's passion project for a spin." The Daily Telegraph's Robbie Collin commented "Polley's ideas and images are never subtle (see: pulsating fairground sequences, a wheeling time-lapse shot backed by the titular Leonard Cohen dirge), but that's part of the charm. Her film is flush with beauty and truth, and is unerringly, unnervingly accurate on love, desire and friendship." Empire's David Hughes awarded the film four out of five stars and said "Sarah Polley's second film is a masterfully painted portrait of an ordinary marriage under threat, dominated by a central performance of exquisite subtlety and observation." In December 2012, Andrew O'Hehir from Salon revealed that Williams was his first choice for Best Actress at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.