Take
This Waltz (15)
Written and directed by Sarah Polley
On general release from 17th August 2012
Reviewed by
The classical triangle comes to our screens to be unpicked and unwoven
into a sensitive, humorous and piercing piece of film from the talented
Sarah Polley (Blue Valentine, 2010). A Brief
Encounter wake shot in smooth camera movement, complemented by
a script that creeps and lifts under the skin to reveal imperfect humans
with good intentions.
The atmospheric tension supported by an evocative soundtrack (Leonard
Cohen, The Buggles), oozes off the screen and portrayed brilliantly by
a talented cast (Michelle Williams as Margot, Seth Rogen and Luke Kirby).
Personal politics are placed in neon lights: "There’s a gap
in life and that’s just how it is", Geraldine (Sarah Silverman)
communicates in her stark honesty as she battles with her alcoholism.
The gap is delicately unravelled to its unquenchable reality; that being
even in a dreamy rickshaw artist who presses buttons of possibly being
seen? Soul and all!! The un-nerving childish demands depict contemporized
co-dependency in humour and unease, generating a reflection of the impossibility
it allows for growth. This multi-layered film, full of sophistication
in its communication of the emotional realm of desire and innocence, gathers
a stifling atmosphere which you see in the characters' inability to be
able to see the trees from the wood.
Polley seduces the audience as like her characters in the film, to worm
hole out into stark reality without sound or light, raising many questions
of the after-math of fantasy, desire and the come down once the invariable
bubble has been popped! Is this love after all? A refreshing observation
on contemporary relationships luring us into the mine field and the dynamics
that prove timeless.
This is an accomplished piece of work to say the least, which offers
provocation, humour and subtext that many will identify with. Be prepared
to sit up and possibly WAKE UP.
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