Take This Waltz

Actress-turned-director Sarah Polley’s much-anticipated second feature was a hot ticket on last fall’s festival circuit. Polley’s superb debut, 2006’s Oscar-nominated Away from Her, had dealt with an aging couple torn asunder by Alzheimer’s. In the more daring Take This Waltz, she marshals a high-wattage cast — including Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, and Sarah Silverman, all excellent — in another devastating account of a relationship’s end. Williams, in a brave performance, is Margot, happy in her comfy life with husband Lou (Rogen), until she meets handsome Daniel (Luke Kirby) — and an intense immediate mutual attraction has Margot questioning all her assumptions about her happiness and her marriage. “One of the finest and most delicate explorations of the troubling, evanescent nature of romance in recent memory” (TIFF). “Polley takes a lot of risks ... You’ve got to admire her for tackling a subject so thorny — an unhappy person who can’t recognize her part in it — and sticking to it without compromise (Johanna Schneller, Globe and Mail). Colour, 35mm. 116 mins.