Available on DVD: “Take This Waltz”

A young married woman — reasonably happy — becomes tempted to cheat on her husband, and not tempted mildly, but tempted as if her soul is screaming, tempted like only Michelle Williams can be tempted, where just breathing in and out becomes torment and ecstasy. What she chooses, and what it means, form the story of Take This Waltz, written and directed by Sarah Polley (Away from Her).

The screenplay is a mix of strong and embarrassing moments, sometimes embarrassing because the actors seem so emotionally naked, and sometimes because the actors must put over an awkward chunk of script. At its worst, Polley’s style veers toward the cornball. Yet, in the broad outlines of her story, she has clearly created something with a lot of hard truth. And she has given a role to Williams that showcases the actress’ internal qualities, her ability to express inner conflict and passion.

After Wendy and Lucy and My Week With Marilyn, everybody knows that Williams is an extraordinary actress, and yet Take This Waltz still feels like a step forward, not necessarily in her abilities, but in her relationship with her public. This film marks the moment when Williams becomes familiar, not too familiar, but familiar in the way of a movie star, where the audience starts looking at her with understanding and starts looking to her for the expression of certain ideas and emotions.

These ideas and emotions elude precise categorization, but in Williams’ case they seem to have something to do with social reticence and fierce desire; with probity and hunger; with an unblinking capacity to see the harsh truth and a pained inability to deny it — even when she’d like to. Williams illuminates for us the seemingly small person who sees herself as an even smaller person, and yet is walking around with volcanoes, earthquakes and tidal waves going on inside her.

The conflict of Margot (Michelle Williams) in Take This Waltz is that she loves her husband (Seth Rogen), but her relationship with him has calcified at a childhood level. Now they can only join as playmates, through shared games and funny voices. So when she meets Daniel (Luke Kirby), he is offering her something that we think she needs just as much as she thinks she needs it, an adult relationship with adult passion. That she wants it is practically evidence that she deserves it.

Polley takes almost two hours to chart this woman’s emotional course, and Williams is so skilled and so inherently sympathetic that there is not a minute of this journey in which the audience isn’t interested in her and caring about her. The actors trace a long arc as well, Rogen from child to man as the husband, Kirby from wry seducer to someone who isn’t playing games.

Sarah Silverman, in an energetic but amateurish performance, shows up as Williams’ alcoholic sister-in-law. There’s no believing Silverman, and yet nothing about her makes you wish she’d go away. She’s certainly eager enough, too, appearing fully nude with Williams in a women’s shower scene.

Polley’s ultimate point in Take This Waltz is complex and sophisticated and can’t be discussed here, not without revealing the ending. Suffice it to say, the issues here are bigger than one woman’s story.