My Review: Take this Waltz (3/10)

¨Life has a gap in it, it just does. You don’t go crazy trying to fill it.¨

Thanks to Take this Waltz, I`ve found my worse film of 2012 so far. This is a movie that looked extremely good in the trailers, but didn’t work at all for me as a film. The movie had some beautiful shots, the scenery was incredible, there were some strong performances as well, but the story just didn’t work for me and it never felt believable for one moment. Just because this film manages to break all the romantic genre conventions doesn’t mean that it`s going to be good. I never felt the chemistry between any of the characters, and everything just seemed forced. This is Sarah Polley`s second feature film after her successful 2006 movie, Away From Her, which won several awards and also received two Oscar nominations (one for Polley as a screenwriter and another for Julie Christie`s leading performance). Polley also wrote the depressive screenplay for Take this Waltz where a married woman struggles to remain faithful to her husband after meeting a very attractive young man who just happens to live in the road across from them. Michelle William`s character really had several issues and I just found her behavior extremely rare. Her relationship with her husband was more of a playful friendship than anything else. I don`t know what her neighbor found interesting in her as she behaved awkwardly all the time. I found this movie hard to follow as I couldn’t connect, sympathize, or relate with any of the characters. The entire movie just dragged for an entire two hours and if it wasn’t for some beautiful photography I would`ve hated this movie even more.

Margot (Michelle Williams) is a writer who is on a trip working on her assignment when she meets an artist named Daniel (Luke Kirby). Both of them happen to share seats in the airplane flight back home to Toronto and sparks seem to fly between them. Coincidentally when they arrive and share a taxi together they realize that they live across the street from each other. Margot tells Luke that she`s married and they say their goodbyes. Margot enters her home and we are introduced to her husband, Lou (Seth Rogen), who is a loving and friendly husband. He is a cook and is working on a cookbook with different chicken recipes. Lou and Margot`s relationship is strange however, Margot is distance at times and acts like a teenager. Both of them are very playful, but she seems to have some sort of psychological disorder. Margot begins feeling like something is missing in her life and begins spending more time with Daniel as she feels physically attracted to him. She begins to feel conflicted and guilty because she realizes this and doesn’t want to cheat on her husband. This pretty much summarizes a plot where almost nothing else happens outside of Margot`s world and the tension she faces between choosing to stay with Lou or giving in to her feelings towards Daniel.

I was really looking forward to this film because the trailer seemed really interesting and the critics have been praising this film, but I was really disappointed with the way things turned out. I did not like the story at all, and felt Michelle Williams`s character was annoying. It was painful to watch her at times. I did not feel the chemistry between her and Luke Kirby at all, everything felt forced. I must say Seth Rogen is probably the best in this film and it was interesting to see him in a dramatic role. Sarah Silverman also has a supportive role in this film, and her character is way more interesting than Michelle`s. Too bad Polley didn’t decide to make the story revolve around her instead. The only positive thing I can say about Take this Waltz is that it has some beautiful shots, the photography was great, and the soundtrack was actually really good, but the rest of the movie failed tremendously. This is the worst film I`ve seen this year and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

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My Review: Splice (3/10)

¨Science's Newest Miracle ... Is A Mistake¨

I really wanted to like this movie more than what I did because it began with such promise and the concept was very interesting, but as the film developed it just got predictable and the ending could be seen coming miles away. I was disappointed at how this sci-fi film became so predictable after the first half. At first it seems to be a film paying tribute to ¨The Bride of Frankenstein¨ with a very similar premise, but more believable now considering the modern scientific advancements in genetics to create a clone combining animal and human DNA. Even the main characters names, Colin and Elsa, were chosen to honor the actors who played Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) and the bride (Elsa Lanchester). I wasn`t too happy about Splice and can`t compare it to that classic because it just doesn`t resolve the way an original sci-fi film should. Splice seemed to take all the modern day conventions of movies near the end and lose all its originality in the process. Director Vincenzo Natali, mostly known for his 1997 film Cube, has an interesting idea but can`t find a decent way to resolve the movie. He wrote the screenplay along with Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor and at first they focused on the ethical dilemma of cloning this being, the psychological elements of parenthood and family, but later focused more on Colin and Elsa then on their creation itself. I really hated the ending and the movie felt so long even though it only lasts an hour and forty minutes. I was disappointed with Splice.

Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) works as a scientist in N.E.R.D., a corporation that specializes in genetic research, along with his partner Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley). They work in a genetic lab where they splice several animal genes in order to create a protein that can be sold in the market. The experiment goes well so Clive and Elsa want to further their research, but the leaders at NERD want them to stick to this experiment and sell the protein because they can`t have any more expenses. Elsa ignores her bosses and along with Clive continue to experiment on several animal genes. They add a human gene as well in order to speed up the process and the result is a new living organism that develops at an amazing rate. At first Clive wants to destroy the creature, but Elsa protects it and convinces him to let it grow since it will die soon anyway because of the speed with which it develops. The creature takes the shape of a little girl mixed with some animal parts, and Elsa treats her as a kid more than an actual experiment and even names her Dren (Nerd spelled backwards). As she grows, Elsa and Clive have to take her to a barn where they keep her locked out from the world. Dren (Delphine Chaneac) has human needs, such as need for affection, love and being cared for, but at the same time she has some violent reactions and she gets harder to control. Clive and Elsa will soon discover that it wasn`t right for them to mess with mother nature.

There are some interesting elements that Vicenzo plays along with here, such is the case with how life changes with parenting. First Dren finds love and nurturing from her mother, but as she grows older she becomes more fond of her father, but the film decides to abandon these psychological and moral issues and tries to have a more Hollywood friendly ending. Don`t go into Splice expecting a Horror film, because it doesn`t have any scares, the central theme of the film is this sci-fi and psychological study. Delphine Chaneac does a decent job playing this creature, but the rest of the cast I wasn`t too excited about. Adrien Brody is far from his Pianist days and Sarah Polley was very weak as well. Splice had tremendous potential, but it really lost my interest and it is not a film I would want to watch ever again. I can see how many critics enjoyed this film because it pays tribute to some classic Lynch (Eraserhead), Polanski (Rosemary`s Baby) and Cronenberg (The Fly) films. The film actually focused more on Elsa, then on Dren and I think we all wished it developed Dren`s character a little more instead of Elsa. Anyways this is a film I won`t be recommending or ever watching again for that matter despite the decent reviews it has been given from the critics.

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