Margot meets Daniel while on a business trip, and although they immediately share some chemistry, she reveals to him that she is married. However, it turns out that Daniel is living across the street from Margot and her husband Lou in Toronto. Although Lou and Margot appear happy together, it becomes clear that Margot is not completely satisfied with her marriage, possibly aggravated by encountering Daniel.
She is initially resistant to Daniel’s advances, but as the film progresses they interact more and more until she ultimately leaves her husband to be with him. Lou is saddened, yet understanding. The audience is then shown a montage of Margot’s new life with Daniel, including several brief sex scenes. As the film ends, there is some indication that Margot is not satisfied with her new life either.
Take This Waltz begins with heat. Margot is baking muffins in the sweltering humidity of a Toronto summer. Heat radiates from the oven, sunlight filters through the windows, and as Margot leans up against the stove, the film becomes a sensory experience.
Take This Waltz is the second feature film from writer / director Sarah Polley, based on her screenplay which made the coveted Black List in 2009. Whereas Polley’s feature film directorial debut, Away From Her, was the tender story of a couple in the winter of their married life, Take This Waltz follows a younger couple, married for only a few years, moving from the springtime of their romance, settling into what should be a warm, loving life together.
Set in Polley’s hometown of Toronto, she proudly admits that she romanticizes the city, and wanted to show her affection for the tree‐lined streets and downtown residential areas tucked in around neighborhood restaurants and cinemas. So she placed the story right onto the sidewalks, streetcars and beaches which she walks every day.
The title of the film, Take This Waltz, comes from the Leonard Cohen song of the same name, the words of which Cohen interpreted from “Little Viennese Waltz” by the modernist poet, Frederico Garcia Lorca, who was assassinated in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.
Now in Vienna there’s ten pretty women. There’s a shoulder where
Death comes to cry. There’s a lobby with nine hundred windows.
There’s a tree where the doves go to die.
“The lyrics are so tragic and romantic,” declared Polley. “You never completely understand it, but it makes perfect sense on some deep, emotional level. I listened to it non‐stop while writing the screenplay and it informed the tone of what I wanted to accomplish.”
In the story, Lou is the good husband, durable in his affection for his wife, grounded in his kitchen, as he diligently works his way through his chicken recipes; Margot, however, is a zephyr. Temperate in her self‐awareness, untethered by intention, she is easily propelled by gusts of inspiration coming from others. Side by side, making all the proscribed choices young, urban couples are advised to make, they move towards their future. Lou, contentedly – Margot, because she is his wife.
Take This Waltz
Directed by: Sarah Polley
Starring: Seth Rogen, Michelle Williams, Sarah Silverman, Luke Kirby, Raoul Bhaneja, Jennifer Podemski
Screenplay by: Sarah Polley
Production Design by: Matthew Davies
Cinematography by: Luc Montpellier
Film Editing by: Christopher Donaldson
Art Direction by: Aleksandra Marinkovich
Set Decoration by: Steve Shewchuk
Costume Design by: Lea Carlson
Music by: Jonathan Goldsmith
MPAA Rating: R for language, some strong sexual content and graphic nudity.
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Release Date: June 29, 2012
Related Link: Take This Waltz Movie Full Production Notes
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