VIFF 2011: “Take This Waltz”

“But I set fire to the rain

Watched it pour as I touched your face
Well, it burned while I cried
'Cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name” – Adele

Sarah Polley’s first film since her stunning, Oscar-nominated Away From Her is a study in marital dissatisfaction and the thrill of something new. Margot (Michelle Williams) is a slightly off-kilter, anti-social hipster who has been married for five years to Lou (Seth Rogen), a chef working on a book of nothing but chicken recipes. On a business trip, she becomes irresistibly drawn to Daniel (Luke Kirby), an artist who works as a rickshaw driver and who just happens to live across the street from them. During the course of several chance encounters, he discovers that she’s unhappy in her marriage, not because of any fault of her husband’s, but because of her own malaise and dissatisfaction. Over time, Margot spends more time with Daniel and they make a date to meet thirty years into the future, because she can’t act on her impulses and her new feelings now … or could she?

This is not a film where true love must conquer all. To leave a dissatisfying situation is the solution that works for everyone. Circumstance can sometime dictate our decisions, and in take this waltz, Polley stealthily introduces that the problem is not merely one of attraction of romantic predicament, but of something deeper and more organic to character. Inspired in no small part by David Lean’s Brief Encounter, if not overtly then in spirit and candour, Take This Waltz is the rare romantic work where no one is particularly villainous or angelic, they are simply who they are and are not purely defined by their actions. Margot is a flake. Lou adores her, even if he is a bit juvenile and plays little jokes on her that never quite completely rob her of her dignity. Daniel is earthy, artistic and bold. Margot’s dilemma is not encapsulated within a conventional plot. It is, much like Blue Valentine (also starring Williams), an intimate character study of the aftermath of great passion and its remains. Ultimately, Polley reveals that happily ever after is not defined by circumstance, but by difficult choices that affect all involved parties. The final scenes is particularly telling and, without ever saying a single word, speaks to a more solemn undertone that has been there all along, but you just never saw until the credits roll.

The film boasts a dream cast that flourishes under Polley’s confident direction. Williams has become one of our most reliable dramatic actresses, following up her Oscar-nominated turn in Blue Valentine with another rich performance. Kirby exudes just enough attraction to make him irresistible, without making him a total creep (even if he is kind of a jerk for not leaving her well alone). There is a great surprise in Sarah Silverman’s brief but effective turn as Lou’s alcoholic sister, who sees everyone more clearly than they could ever see themselves. But the true revelation in Take This Waltz is Vancouver native Rogen as Lou, a great bear of a man who is slightly childish, but whose happy exterior contains a limitless reservoir of feeling. In a scene of slowly cascading heartbreak, he pours out his emotions not in long speeches, but in fits and spurts of quiet desperation. Rogen has heretofore only appeared in puerile comedies, and on the basis of his magnificent performance here should be freed from ever making anything remotely resembling Knocked Up.

Take This Waltz played to packed houses at the Vancouver International Film Festival after a rapturous reception at Toronto. Check the website for more information, including a possible but yet unannounced commercial release date.

O, Canada! Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir

O, Canada!

Wherever you are in the world, you might think that the recent very ugly Stanley Cup Finals were representative of my hometown of Vancouver and of Canada in general.

Wipe that condescension and disdain off your face. Have you forgotten that just a year and a half ago, you were fawning over how absolutely glorious our Olympics where? They also took place in Vancouver, you know.

On this Canada Day, I have chosen to honour one of my favourite moments of the 2010 Olympics: the free dance of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the Canadian Olympic ice dance champions.

Because everyone loves a back story, especially for the Olympics, here it is. Tessa and Scott have been skating together since childhood. They were world junior champions in ice dance and debuted spectacularly at the senior level by finishing sixth at the worlds in 2007. They then made the leap to second in 2008, and complimented their silver medal with a bronze the following year. They were one of the contenders for the 2010 Olympics, having won numerous pre-Olympic meets in the 2009/2010 season. They faced stiff competition from their American training partners Meryl Davis & Charlie White, their teammates Tanith Belbin & Benjamin Agosto, and the Russian world champions Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin. This does not include the French, British and Italian couples nipping at their heels.

In the preliminary compulsory dance

By the time of the final free dance, the Canadian Olympic team had collectively taken a bit of a beating. The ambitious “Own the Podium” program was designed with the goal of putting Canada atop the medal rankings with the most medals. It was the midway point of an Olympics darkened by the death of a Georgian luger on the day of the opening ceremony, a lack of snow in what became a record warm winter for the city of Vancouver, and a respectable but unspectacular medal tally for the Canadian team at that point. A rather nasty British journalist sensationally wrote that these Olympics were about to become “the worst ever”, and we were just barely halfway. This was Monday, February 22, 2010.

Then Tessa and Scott took the ice.

Somewhat unexpectedly the leaders going into the free dance, Virtue & Moir were predicted to win a medal, but a lot of prognosticators had forecast silver or bronze for the team, behind the Americans and / or Russians. The country was hungry for a moment to really shine and gain momentum.

What happened next was sheer magic. The clip is below.