Take This Waltz

Column: The Word on Films | Date Published: Tuesday, 31 July 12 | Author: Megan McKeough | 9 months, 3 weeks ago

Take This Waltz is about a young married couple, Lou (Seth Rogen) and our protagonist Margot (Michelle Williams), whose love has turned into a kind of cute but passionless companionship.

Lou and Margot go through married life engaging in a string of silly games and comfortable familiarity: enter the mysterious Daniel. He paints! He earns a living through dragging a tuk-tuk! He has arm muscles! And suddenly the already restless Margot is thrown into a state of confusion as each encounter with Daniel leaves her more and more intrigued by the promise of shiny new passion.

My main problem with this film is that I found there to be very little chemistry between Margot and this man who’s supposed to be setting her loins on fire. I blame this mainly on Luke Kirby (who plays the ‘too bohemian to be true’ Daniel). I also thought Margot was annoying, though beautifully played by Williams. Rogen also turns in a surprisingly nuanced performance (or maybe it’s just nuanced for Rogen) as the likeable and completely non-sexual Lou.

While Take This Waltz offers some interesting insights and lovely scenes of Toronto, it largely annoyed the shit out of me. The characters were slightly too unlikeable and the situations slightly too unsympathetic. Even though it is shot with a lot of love and care by Sarah Polley, for me it just didn’t hit the mark.

	Not Suitable For Children: Not Suitable For Children is yet another step in the right direction for Australian film, proving that we can make funny, heartwarming, romantic comedies that are just as good as those Hollywood makes – and in many cases better. Ryan Kwanten plays Jonah, a twenty-something who likes to party hard, lead a somewhat promiscuous lifestyle and be responsible for as little as humanly possible –that is, until he discovers he has testicular cancer and that surgery will render him infertile. His housemates (played by Sarah Snook and Ryan Corr) try to help him through this trying time, while also trying to convince him not to impregnate one of his many ex-girlfriends in a rash and rushed attempt to have children. The Sydney scenery shows that our big cities can be just as cinematically appealing as the bright lights of New York, with shots of graffitied back streets and the iconic Sydney skyline adding character without feeling too forced. While Not Suitable for Children is a little directionless at times, as if unsure of what the ending will actually be as it meanders towards its conclusion, it’s still cheering and uplifting enough to feel gratifying at the end. It’s also not so lewd as to actually be not suitable for children. This is the kind of vulgar, rough-around-the-edges rom-com that has made Judd Apatow’s career – and may just make the careers of its lesser-known stars too.

	The Dark Knight Rises: I didn’t enjoy The Dark Knight Rises that much. Awkward. Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises picks up eight years after The Dark Knight ended. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has become a recluse with a gimp leg, living a solitary life in his mansion while cultivating a creepy beard. Criminal activity in Gotham has ostensibly been crushed. However, the appearance of a stealthy cat burglar, Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) is the first sign of a reemergence of crime in Gotham – and Bruce Wayne must become Batman once more to face an opponent far stronger than any he has faced before: Bane (Tom Hardy). So. The twist at the end of the film undermines Bane as a serious, scary villain. Nolan has tried to weave too many storylines together and unfortunately forsakes his characters – which made the previous films so compelling – for larger political themes, which are not even fully explored. For a film about Batman, it doesn’t actually feature Batman that much. There’s a really lame third of the film where Batman is trapped in a desert prison (/down a well). Look, it’s not all doom and gloom. This is still a Christopher Nolan film, after all, and the actors still turn in convincing performances (particularly Anne Hathaway). But perhaps lower your expectations, because rather than rising above The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises has taken a significant step down.