Take This Waltz (2011)

It’s summer in Toronto when married Margot (Michelle Williams) meets painter and bicycle-rickshaw driver Daniel (Luke Kirby). He awakens the desire missing in her relationship with Lou (Seth Rogen). Once they realize they are neighbors, things get complicated.

Margot and chicken-recipe creator Lou engage in juvenile discussions. Lou cooks away and Margot hangs on him. (Twice, it looks like a burn accident waiting to happen). Their interactions are klutzy. For most of the movie, I was certain Margot was suffering from some form of mental illness. By the end, she just seemed awkward.

Margot’s yearning for Daniel consumes her, but she also can’t leave Lou. Her guilt overwhelms her but she can’t stay away from Daniel. Margot and Daniel relate on different level. When she makes a decision, her life with Daniel is happy but after seeing Lou again, she leaves sad. Her time with Lou wasn’t bad, just beige. They had a connection, albeit a different one that was no longer sustainable.

Take this Waltz has its peculiarities. Lou and Margot’s relationship is stuck in junior high. When he’s taking an important business call, she is sticking her fingers in his mouth, making it nearly impossible for him to respond. They regularly banter about the violent things they will do to each other, trying to one up on the scale of disturbing. Rogen’s limited acting skills didn’t bother me. In fact, it worked with the role of the blank-page guy who simply wants the girl to love him.

There’s a subplot involving Geraldine (Sarah Silverman), Lou’s sister in recovery. Her relationship with Margot is genuine but it gets little time, which is unfortunate because it gives insight into Margot from a platonic perspective. Silverman does a good job with a role that doesn’t center on scat jokes. To celebrate Geraldine’s sobriety, Lou and Margot throw an excellent party with food, dancing and a stand-out song by Feist covering Leonard Cohen’s Closing Time. (Loved it.)

The movie’s hazy colors and depiction of summer intertwine with the plot’s complex feelings. I bought the kooky Margot-Lou pairing and I understand how it worked until it didn’t.

Writer/director: Sarah Polley

Country: Canada

Genre: Drama

Run time: 95 minutes

Scale: 3

My Week with Marilyn (2011)

It’s 1956. Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) has just married playwright Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott). She’s deep into her drug use and her demons are winning. Sir Laurence Olivier (the always amazing Kenneth Branagh) hires Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), a recent Oxford graduate, as third assistant on production of The Prince and the Showgirl.

The set is a flitter with expectation of meeting the iconic and attractive Monroe. She shows up late, flubs her lines, disagrees with Olivier on whether her character would actually utter those lines and then, stops showing up. Olivier’s frustration yields to anger and impatience. His wife Vivien Leigh (Julia Ormond) is jealous of Monroe’s youth and the way her husband looks at her.

Monroe’s instability and depression call the shots. Some days she’s unable to leave her bed and lacks the psychological stamina to act. Her acting coach Paula (Zoë Wanamaker) is usually able to keep her together. Miller leaves and Monroe is inconsolable. Now, no one can help her.

Enter Colin Clark. Clark like the rest of the crew is smitten with her. She is having difficulty dealing with the public’s expectations. She’s surrounded by yes people. Colin is guileless. He answers her questions honestly yet diplomatically. Monroe is no dummy no matter her drug haze. She detects his ability to be honest, despite the disdain he receives from the others. He soon learns firsthand everything he has been warned about.

I was surprised by the humor in My Week with Marilyn. You get witty banter and well-timed quips. This is much needed, especially with the portrayal of Monroe as an emotional vampire. She’s able to make anyone feel special, yet also able to drain energy in an attempt to heal her deep sorrows and emotional voids. Her pain is palpable, as are the frustration and sorrow she creates for those who fall under her spell. She lives in a fish bowl where she needs to be loved, yet the constant attention and desire does nothing to fill her voids. She continues in her cycle of moving on—from one man to the next—still seeking the love that will end her pain. Oy, Marilyn.

This movie is based on two journal-style books Clark wrote documenting his time on the set and with Marilyn: The Prince, The Showgirl and Me and My Week with Marilyn.

Director: Simon Curtis

Country: US

Genre: Drama

Run time: 100 minutes

Scale: 4