Take This Waltz: My Review

                                                  

Michelle Williams has made a career out of playing women in unfulfilling marriages (remember her Oscar nominated turns in Brokeback Mountain and Blue Valentine). In the indie, Take This Waltz, Michelle adds another young wife role to her resume as freelance writer Margot, who after five years of being married to Seth Rogan's character Lou, a boring cookbook writer she finds herself falling for a sexy artist/rickshaw driver named Daniel (Luke Kirby).

Daniel meets Margot while she is on a writing assignment and they sit together on the plane ride back and also share a cab to their respective homes. As it turns out, sexy Daniel is Margot's neighbor from across the street (awkward) and the cat and mouse game begins.

I could see why Margot would be attracted to Daniel: he's funny, charming, easy on the eyes, with a wicked sense of humor. Lou on the other hand is nice enough, but I see his and Margot's relationship as more brother/sister than husband and wife. There is also a serious lack of sexual chemistry between the two, in fact you never see the two of them act sexual towards one another, although in one scene it is implied.

For a twenty eight year old woman, I can see where a marriage likes this would feel like an albatross and an emotional affair with a sexy guy would be just the thing that the doctor ordered. Even though the attraction is mutual, Margot and Daniel tread carefully, but I feel the rubber met the road when Daniel gave specifics to Margot as to how intense their encounter would be if they ever had sex. After that scene you saw the disintegration of Margot's marriage to Lou coming from a zillion miles away!

I never got the jest of why Margot and Lou got together in the first place. I wish Sarah Polley would have given the viewer more of a background on how these two crazy kids met, fell in love, and got married so young. I felt cheated by that, but no movie is perfect. I did enjoy Sarah Silverman's turn as Geraldine, Lou's alcoholic sister whose attempt at sobriety is an epic fail. The role isn't big, but Sarah does a good job in the few scenes she has.

The resolution to the love triangle was a little pat for my taste and the ending was too open ended.  Did Margot remain with Daniel, or did she go off on her own? That was not clear, but all in all I would suggest this as a movie worth seeing.

Have anyone of you seen it, and if so what did you think of the performances and the film overall?

The Authors of Beautiful Bastard Score Major Deal

Congrats to writers (and friends in my head) Lauren Billings and Christina Hobbs who wrote the bestseller Beautiful Bastard and the soon to be released Beautiful Stranger. They just signed a 5 book deal with Gallery Books to continue the saga of Chloe, Bennett, and the people that inhabit their world. 

Beautiful Stranger will be released in May with the Target exclusive going on sale later this month and after that readers will be blessed with another Beautiful Bastard spinoff and three (yes!!) three novellas featuring Chloe and Bennett. 

We fans can also expect another full length novel to hit book shelves just in time for summer 2014, and the Beautiful Bastard film is still underway. I can't wait!

Readers have you read Beautiful Bastard yet? If so will you continue to follow the characters and the various spinoffs?

Halle's Expecting!

Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez are expecting their first child together. Halle released a

statement today that she is three months pregnant with a baby boy.

 Congrats to Halle and Olivier!

My Take On the Latest Entertainment News

First of all I must give major kudos to the Queen B herself for waking up the Beyhive at 9 AM this morning with the 60 second Pepsi commercial/teaser for her single Grown Woman that will be released this coming Monday. I am happy to know that Bow Down will not be the first single since that cut did not catch on with listeners, plus the sound of it was so not the Beyonce we are familiar with. Grown Woman from I have heard sounds like a summer banger so I'm ready to hear the full track which will be released on I Tunes on April 8th.

Rihanna's 777 documentary will debut on 5/6 on Fox. This is a look at Rihanna's last tour where we will get a behind the scenes perspective to Ri Ri's world, a la Bey's Life Is But A Dream.

The Walking Dead which has taken a lot of criticism in the past from viewers due to its lack of diversity will be adding the characters of Tyreese and Sasha as regular members of the cast, along with  The Governor played by David Morrissey. Melissa Ponzito will reoccur as Karen, the lone survivor of The Governor's murderous rampage on Sunday's finale. The Governor is a great character although I hope the writers do not mess up a good thing by bringing him back for another season. From what I have read there is some great story ahead for the Governor, so we'll see.

Zoe Saldana may be expanding her alien role resume with Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. She is being considered for the role of Gamora, and if Zoe gets this, she will have 3 franchises to her credit (we cannot forget Star Trek and Avatar). Whether you are a fan of Zoe's or not, she is making things happen. I personally want to see her in a second installment of Colombiana which I really enjoyed.

Tyler Perry's The Haves and Have Nots will be getting a big launch thanks to Oprah Winfrey. The show will debut on May 26th and will be preceded by a Next Chapter episode featuring the movie mogul and a look at the making of the new OWN series. Oprah and TP are a powerful combination so I hope this new show draws in even more viewers for Oprah's network.

Leighton Meester may no longer be on t v but she is making great strides in her movie career. She will be joining Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall in the new movie The Judge. Leighton is set to play a one night stand of RDJ's. Lucky girl!