The Wife is a gradually paced character study that expresses its take on the patriarchy and the politics of literary prestige but above all – it is a reminder to audiences that Glenn Close is a magnificent actress.
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“Is that Hugh Jackman in a soap opera?” was what I asked myself when I first saw this film’s poster. It wasn’t. In fact, The Wife doesn’t seem like an appealing film at all on the outlook. But follow these words as we look in closer…
Distributed by Sony Picture Classics, The Wife had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. The story provides us access behind the closed and often well-guarded doors of a literary family – The Castlemans: an iconic writer, a ‘long-suffering’ spouse, their sapling son yearning for literary success and an unperturbed daughter.
The story kicks off when we observe Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) picking up the phone to be informed that he has just won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The scene in which this is revealed is captured with such elegance and emotional veracity, it sets the foundation for everything about to come next.
Taking its time to unravel, the slow-burn drama has its focus sharply on the titular characters’ journeys as they each try to find something they’ve never had. Having been based on a novel by Meg Wolitzer, it is no surprise that these character dimensions are neatly developed and advanced as we move along the story. The narrative itself doesn’t pull any truly unexpected surprises, but that’s not why we’re here.
The film is a classic drama about a small family, set against a grand literary backdrop. Without greedy prefixes like action or horror or romantic, its simplicity is what makes this cinematic affair so compelling. At points where the drama peaks in this film, there won’t be nary a whisper you’ll hear. The Wife is a gradually paced character study that expresses its take on the patriarchy and the politics of literary prestige but above all – it is a reminder to audiences that Glenn Close is a magnificent actress.
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