Film: TAKE THIS WALTZ September 6, 2012

2011, Sarah Polley, Canada, 116 min.
With Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen

“A wonderful movie...honest, surefooted, emotionally generous.”
—A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“Frank, erotic, often very funny, and sometimes startling.”
—Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com

In another brilliant, challenging performance, Michelle Williams plays a Toronto travel writer torn between an affectionate but perhaps too comfortable marriage to a cookbook author (Rogen) and the lure of passionate adventure with a handsome neighbor (Luke Kirby). Rogen and Sarah Silverman (as the heroine’s sardonic but vulnerable sister-in-law) stretch impressively in mainly dramatic roles. As in her acclaimed debut AWAY FROM HER, writer-director Polley excels at depicting the messiness of love, while showing off new chops with her use of hot colors (especially in the film’s vibrant depiction of Toronto’s Kensington Market area), well-placed music (especially the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” and the Leonard Cohen song that provides the film’s title), and sophisticated eroticism (especially in a tour-de-force verbal seduction set in a bar).

Official Website: http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/takethiswaltz