Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Take This Waltz Blu-ray Movie Review

Dances gracefully around some thorny relationship issues.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater November 8, 2012

Canadian indie queen actress Sarah Polley made her directorial debut in 2006 with the quietly powerful Away From Her, about the dementia- induced dissolution of a retired couple's marriage. For her followup, Take This Waltz, she once again examines how marital bonds can be weakened by one partner's mental state; in this case, a young wife's grass-is-always-greener complex, which leads her to stray into her literal neighbor's yard. And by "yard," I figuratively mean bed. But this doesn't happen all at once. Polley's nuanced and intelligent script is a slow tease that achingly portrays the seductive nature of affairs. This is a very adult film, not in being particularly explicit—which it occasionally is—but in its clear-eyed honesty about how messy and complicated our emotional lives can be. It's characters are all well-intentioned. They're likable. There's no clear "bad guy" here. And yet, in pursuing their desires, they each make hurtful, future-altering decisions that can never be reversed. Take This Waltz stirs up a lot of feeling in the mature acknowledgement that choices have unforeseen consequences, and that the want for more—more excitement, more safety, more passion—is often inescapable and contradictory. Watch it with your S.O., but be prepared for the film to stimulate some post-viewing discussion.

Michelle Williams stars as Margot, an insecure freelance writer on assignment in Nova Scotia, where she meets-cute with the tall, dark, and handsome Daniel (Luke Kirby). They hit it off on the plane back to Toronto—flirting in an awkward, guarded way—and share a cab from the airport when they realize they happen to live in the same neighborhood. It's blindingly apparent to both that they've made an instant connection, but when the taxi pulls up to Margot's house, she drops the previously unspoken bomb—she's married. "Oh, that's too bad," Daniel says, disappointed, before loping across the street into his own home, in her direct line of sight, less than fifty yards away.

All of this feels a bit too coincidental—what are the odds, right?—and the film asks us to suspend just one more aspect of our disbelief before it moves into more serious territory. Daniel, a wannabe artist who lacks the courage to put his work out into the world, pulls tourists around on a rickshaw for a living. Margot seems severely underemployed. And her husband, Lou (Seth Rogen), is an unpublished chicken cookbook author. How these people afford to live in such a gentrified, bohemian part of town on their limited incomes is a matter of wild speculation. Perhaps they have trust funds we don't know about.

Regardless, once the film gets past some of the unlikelihoods of its first act, the slowly unfolding romantic drama is gripping and real. Sarah Polley, who also wrote the screenplay, quickly establishes that Margot and Lou's marriage of several years isn't rocky—it arguably isn't rocky enough. They have a safe, comfortable, perhaps overly familiar relationship. They playfully tease one another—he pours cold water over her in the shower, she communicates with him in a sort of cloying baby talk—and they seem happy in their life together. But they're not passionate, and their attempts at intimacy seem either rote or strained. This is a very new kind of role for the normally comedic Rogen, who goes more vulnerable and authentic here than we've seen him before. His Lou is a nice guy—funny and warm and loving—but he's also inattentive and somewhat persnickety, more consumed with the chicken he's stewing on the stove than with his wife, who just wants to be noticed and romanced.

This, of course, is where Daniel comes in, pursuing Margot with a knee-buckling intensity. The film's middle section is essentially forty minutes of raw psychological foreplay, with the pair moving ever closer to the inevitable. Margot allows herself only semi-reluctantly to be wooed. She puts herself in situations where she's bound to run into Daniel. She dreams about him. They go on chaste but sexually pent-up daytime dates, one of which—a scene in a diner where he describes what he'd "do to her"—is so charged and hot that you may feel the humidity in the room rising as you watch it. Lou suspects nothing, and Margot is caught between the excitement of the new and the guilt she feels over betraying her husband. Of course cheating on your spouse is wrong is our go-to moral/cultural reaction in this situation, but the film illustrates the real-world trickiness of our feelings. Temptation can certainly be strong, and Polley shows desire as an addiction of sorts, thematically mirroring this with a subplot about Lou's recovering alcoholic sister, Geraldine (a perfectly verve-y and pitiable Sarah Silverman). The film plays a few off notes in its final minutes, but it ends on a wonderfully bittersweet and unresolved emotional chord.

Take This Waltz Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The first thing you'll notice about the picture here is that sometimes it's very realistic-looking, while elsewhere the tonal grading features candy-colored oversaturation. Skies go a Sweet Tarts blue. Reds are pushed to cherry. Sunlight streams in intense yellows. Pool water becomes an almost ridiculous turquoise. According to an interview with Sarah Polley in the making-of documentary, this is highly intentional—it seems to reflect the sensory overload of falling in love—but it's also distractingly unnatural at times, and I think a more consistent, tempered approach would've worked better. In all other respects, though, this is a great 1080p/AVC-encoded Blu-ray presentation. Take This Waltz was shot digitally using the Panavision Genesis high definition camera, resulting in crisp, clean footage that's nearly noiseless in all but the darkest scenes. There's simply no need for heavy DNR or edge enhancement. If you can get past the sometimes too vivid palette, color pops with strong density—no wishy-washy-ness here—and the slightly ramped up contrast carves out a very dimensional image. The picture is consistently sharp as well, with fine detail resolving nicely in closeups and even many longer shots. I didn't spot any noticeable compression or encode issues—everything looks, for better or worse, just as intended.

Take This Waltz Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Take This Waltz swings onto Blu-ray with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that's surprisingly engaging for what's essentially a low-key, talky indie romance. The difference here is that it's clear someone paid close attention to the sound design, filling just about every scene with the appropriate ambience and spreading it throughout all 5.1 channels. The rear speakers frequently come alive with activity, from outdoorsy noises like wind and insects and seagull cries, to the neighborhood clamor of sprinklers and light traffic. It all sounds clear and grounded and realistic. The onscreen drama is paired with a wonderful score by Jonathan Goldsmith, who utilizes lots of atypical instrumentation—quiet tones and chimes. The film also makes great use of "Video Killed the Radio Star," by The Buggles. Dialogue is consistently clean and comprehensible throughout, and the disc includes optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles for those who might need or want them.

Take This Waltz Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making of: Taking the Waltz (1080p, 38:16): An excellent making-of piece that features Sarah Polley candidly discussing the nature of desire, the stars talking about their characters, and plenty of on-set BTS footage. I would've loved a commentary track, but this will do in a pinch.
• AXS TV: A Look at Take This Waltz (1080p, 4:54): A short promo, with a synopsis, some clips, and a few talking head soundbites.
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:27)
• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment (1080p, 8:52)

Take This Waltz Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Take This Waltz, Sarah Polley's second film as a writer/director, is a poignant exercise in the psychology of desire. It's rare to see a film that deals so honestly with the complexity of adult relationships, particularly the I'm in love with two people for totally different reasons and I don't know what to do conundrum. Michelle Williams, as usual, gives a nuanced and moving performance—weird and sweet and anxious and real—but more surprising is Seth Rogen in his most vulnerable, serious role yet. I can't say this would make a great date movie, but it's certainly a discussion starter for couples in longterm relationships. (Take that how you will.) The Blu-ray tech specs are fine—and the making-of doc in the special features is worthwhile—so if you're interested, I see no reason not to pick this one up. Recommended for anyone who just can't help falling in love.