Take This Waltz is an unusually kind film about infidelity -- not because it sidesteps or shortchanges heartbreak, but because it doesn't let any one of its characters bear the full burden of blame. That such a thing needs to or should even be assigned in this scenario is beside the point, as the film defers to the�vagueries of the human heart and the way we can, despite our better judgment, form a connection with someone that can't easily be set aside.
It's tempting to glibly connect this clear-eyed�empathy with the fact that�Take This Waltz is Canadian and somehow inherently prone to niceness -- it's set in a rosy version of Toronto in which the characters all live in charmingly shabby chic houses and sporadically work in quirky jobs. But what it actually comes from, I think, is that the film is the sophomore feature of actress-turned-director�Sarah Polley, who constructs her central love triangle with a determinedly�feminine perspective and places all of the choice on her female protagonist Margot, played with typical grace by�Michelle Williams.
Margot wants anything but to have to make a difficult call, especially one that will result in someone getting hurt. One of the film's first scenes finds her visiting the living history museum of the�Fortress of Louisbourg for work and getting pulled in front of a crowd by costumed, in-character staffers to help with a flogging. "Put your back into it!" yells a man from the crowd when she ineffectually flails at the prisoner, clearly mortified. Later, she ends up sitting next to the heckler on the plane. His name is Daniel (Luke Kirby), and he's just watched her board in a wheelchair despite not having needed one before, leading her to confess that she pretends at airports because of her terror of…
Brody Dalle Brooke Burke Brooke Burns Busy Philipps Cameron Diaz Cameron Richardson Camilla Belle Carla Campbell
