Movie Review: Sony Pictures Classic's The Wife

THE WIFE
CAST: Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, Christian Slater, Max Irons, Harry Lloyd, Annie Starke, and Elizabeth McGovern
DIRECTED BY: Bjorn Runge
PRODUCED BY: Rosalie Swedlin, Meta Louise Foldager Sorensen
RUN TIME: 100 Minutes
RATED: R
RELEASE DATE: September 14, 2018 (Houston)

After nearly forty years of marriage, JOAN and JOE CASTLEMAN (Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce) are complements. Where Joe is casual, Joan is elegant. Where Joe is vain, Joan is self-effacing. And where Joe enjoys his very public role as Great American Novelist, Joan pours her considerable intellect, grace, charm, and diplomacy into the private role of Great Man’s Wife. Joe is about to be awarded the Nobel Prize for his acclaimed and prolific body of work. Joe’s literary star has blazed since he and Joan first met in the late 1950’s. THE WIFE interweaves the story of the couple’s youthful passion and ambition with a portrait of a marriage, thirty-plus years later—a lifetime’s shared compromises, secrets, betrayals, and mutual love.

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There are few artists who can fill an entire movie screen with their acting abilities. Nowadays, movies are so full of special effects, music, and other gimmicks that audiences see acting as only one component of a movie.  Well, thank goodness for Glen Close. Her latest performance, in The Wife, is some of the best acting of the year. 

The Wife is all Glen Close, for the entire run time. Close plays Joan, the wife a recent Nobel prize winner who is conflicted about her husband's win. Close's performance is incredibly nuanced. Every sigh, voice tone and glance has a ton of meaning. It was engrossing to watch Close's face for slight, but deliberate, expressions. 

Joan's other half, Joe, is played perfectly by Jonathan Pryce. Max Irons plays Joan and Joe's son, David. Christian Slater plays a reporter, Nathaniel. So, the film is basically four males and Close, but there is no confusing who the star is.  The give and take between the cast is very entertaining. Great dialogue. Natural pace. 

The story felt familiar and novel. It was familiar in that The Wife deals with marital conventions for all the slings and arrows between spouses. It felt new because of the Nobel prize and those complications. 

The Wife is a slow, but smoldering, burn.  It's one of those pensive pieces which invites the audience to evaluate its own human relationships. No part of it was boring. Nothing about it was ordinary. 

Close's performance is worth a trip to a movie theater. It goes great with a glass of wine. The Wife is playing everywhere now.