[6] The film centres on Margot, a 28-year-old freelance writer who lives in a charming house on a leafy street in Toronto's Little Portugal neighbourhood, as she struggles with and examines her feelings for Lou, her husband of five years, while exploring a new relationship with Daniel, an artist and rickshaw driver who lives across the street.

While touring the historic town of Louisburg in Nova Scotia, Canada on an assignment, freelance writer Margot has a couple of chance encounters with Daniel, an artist and rickshaw operator.

At the end of the night, Margot enters Daniel's house and sits on his bed, but she breaks down crying over the possibility of hurting Lou and leaves before anything physical happens.

[9] During press interviews, Silverman stated that she was comfortable performing in the scene, because it was a non-sexual portrayal of a common, everyday occurrence of women being nude together.

[30] Joshua Rothkopf from Time Out New York chose Take This Waltz as one of the publication's "Top Ten Tribeca Film Festival 2012 picks".

Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen (more exposed than he's ever allowed himself to be) are married Torontonians who have settled into a too-comfortable domesticity.

The simmering friction, caused in part by charming neighbour Luke Kirby, takes the film in surprising directions.

"[31] Stephen Holden of The New York Times commented "The temptations and perils of 'the grass is always greener' syndrome aren't as gripping a subject as Alzheimer's, the topic of Ms. Polley's first film, Away from Her, but the movie radiates a melancholy glow.

[33] Papamichael added "Margot is an emotionally gritty role for Williams and she plays it brilliantly close to the edge, but she can seem at odds with a scenario that has more in common with a Mills & Boon fantasy than the real world.

"[33] The Guardian's John Patterson proclaimed "Take This Waltz's practical wisdom about entropy in relationships and sense of resigned acceptance are leavened by an uncharacteristically active and talkative – and often very witty – performance from Williams.

"[34] Justin Chang from Variety said, "Given how quickly movie characters tend to fall into bed with one another, it's especially rewarding to see writer-director Sarah Polley wring maximum tension, humor and emotional complexity from a young wife's crisis of conscience in Take This Waltz.

Despite a few tonal and structural missteps, this intelligent, perceptive drama proves as intimately and gratifyingly femme-focused as Polley's 2006 debut, Away from Her.

"[35] Chang believed the film was "flat-out sexy enough" to appeal to audiences of either gender and praised Williams and Rogen's performances.

"[36] The Daily Telegraph's Robbie Collin commented "Polley's ideas and images are never subtle (see: pulsating fairground sequences, a wheeling time-lapse shot backed by the titular Leonard Cohen dirge), but that's part of the charm.

"[38] In December 2012, Andrew O'Hehir from Salon revealed that Williams was his first choice for Best Actress at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.