I'm sitting here trying to think of the appropriate words to describe Sarah Polley's "Take This Waltz" and there are four things that keep popping into my head: annoying, boring, trying way too hard and overall incredibly duuuuullllllllllllllllllllllllllll.
So what is this film about? It's starring Michelle Williams as a wannabe writer who is married to Seth Rogen, a writer of chicken cookbooks. Their marriage is an extremely childish and silly affair to say the least. Williams is behaving like a 5 year old falling into extremes, either on a sugar high or pouty as hell, both equally annoying. Things get messed up when she meets a cute rickshaw driver living across the street. He's stalking her a little, she's stalking him a little, they spend a day together (without anything really happening), they have a midnight meet at a public swimming pool, you know, the usual stuff. But would she leave her hubby for him?
If you actually do care, go ahead, see the film. For anyone else, there's probably not too much that "Take This Waltz" has to offer. The first, and most glaring problem, are the characters. Williams is supposed to be charming in a pseudo-indie way with her really odd behavior but she simply comes off as incredibly unnerving and unpleasant. The rickshaw guy, played by Luke Kirby, is somewhere between creepy and bland and Seth Rogen is probably the only one who is somewhat relatable, although he as well has some fairly offputting character traits. Overall, none of these people feel real, they seem like caricatures of real people, imagined by somebody who doesn't have a clue about the way people talk or act.
The result of these fairly unappealing characters is that the audience couldn't give less of a crap about what is happening to them. Definitely not a good basis for a film that tries so hard to emulate feelings of real people. And if that wasn't enough, the outcome of the film is foreshadowed in a shower scene about halfway through. And by foreshadowed I mean SPELLED OUT. This is especially irritating as it seems that the filmmakers thought they were really subtle about it.
I could go on and on about what simply doesn't work in "Take This Waltz" (I think the most cringe-worthy scene was when Williams is sitting in bed after spending the day with rickshaw boy and she visibly forces out tears, blatantly trying to manipulate the audience while silently yelling out: "LOOK, I'M ACTING!!!!") but you probably get the idea. Director Sarah Polley is a fine actress and she's proven herself as a director with the exquisite "Away From Her" but here it just doesn't come together. "Take This Waltz"? My answer: NO!
The result of these fairly unappealing characters is that the audience couldn't give less of a crap about what is happening to them. Definitely not a good basis for a film that tries so hard to emulate feelings of real people. And if that wasn't enough, the outcome of the film is foreshadowed in a shower scene about halfway through. And by foreshadowed I mean SPELLED OUT. This is especially irritating as it seems that the filmmakers thought they were really subtle about it.
I could go on and on about what simply doesn't work in "Take This Waltz" (I think the most cringe-worthy scene was when Williams is sitting in bed after spending the day with rickshaw boy and she visibly forces out tears, blatantly trying to manipulate the audience while silently yelling out: "LOOK, I'M ACTING!!!!") but you probably get the idea. Director Sarah Polley is a fine actress and she's proven herself as a director with the exquisite "Away From Her" but here it just doesn't come together. "Take This Waltz"? My answer: NO!
No comments:
Post a Comment