Director: Björn Runge
Cast: Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, Christian Slater, Max Irons, Annie Starke, Harry Lloyd
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 100 mins
Release Date: 28th September 2018
THE WIFE is a drama in which a devoted wife questions her life after her husband is selected to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
We begin by meeting Joan Castleman (Glenn Close) and Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) in their bedroom; Joe’s scoffing sweet treats, a greedy compulsion that follows him throughout the film and Joan’s telling him to watch his appetite for fear it will be the death of him. This scene captures the dynamic of their marriage perfectly. Joe repeatedly succumbs to the temptations life presents him, revelling in instant gratification and the luxuries his status as a literary giant have afforded him. Joan on the other hand is measured, she thinks before she acts and keeps the literary giant at bay from ruining himself and his career.
This drama (which is, at times, comical) directed by Björn Runge was adapted by Jane Anderson from the novel by Meg Wolizer. It follows the Castlemans from learning Joe has won the Nobel Prize for literature through to their attendance to the ceremony in Stockholm. The warm, perhaps even mundane marriage we encounter at the beginning of the film turns into a tumultuous one as the road to receiving the Nobel Prize exposes deep rooted unhappiness Joan has kept from surfacing. This exposure is triggered by Christian Slater‘s suitably slimy turn as Nathaniel Bone, a writer eager to be Joe’s official biographer.
The highlight of this film is undoubtedly the electric performance by Glenn Close as Joan. Close manages to convey a multitude of emotions in subtle facial expressions. She is captivating in every frame and a thrill to watch as Joan’s repressed pain erupts to the surface and her rage explodes at Joe. Pryce also gives a stellar performance bringing his acting A-game sparring off Close’s fiery performance. Their characters are both imbued with tenderness and affection for one another which creates a sense of empathy for both of them even when Joe makes mistake after mistake. One almost pities his pathetic tendencies and over-arching feeble attempts outside of his public persona to match his wife’s composure, grace and togetherness.
What this film does so well is portray the complexities of a relationship spanning thirty plus years and the entwinement of two peoples lives bound together. Whilst Joan may want to finally detach from Joe, we are never fully convinced she is wholly certain. She goes to and fro between being outraged at Joe screaming at him to then embracing him both in her eyes and her arms; there is a look of love in her eyes that seems unshakable but we are never sure if it is indeed love or the comforting warmth of being in this relationship she has known for the majority of her life.
We see glimpses of their younger lives through flashbacks in which Joan (Annie Starke) was Joe’s (Harry Lloyd) student at University. Joe was married at the time but they were both mutually seduced by one another, demonstrating Joe’s wondering eye. Young Joan was a promising writer, however, the sexism of the 50’s prevented her from taking her work to a publisher. These scenes are well acted by Starke (it is hard to disassociate her from her real-life mother Glenn Close, particularly when they look so similar) and Lloyd however the dialogue in these flashbacks is cringe-worthy at times and lacks the subtly of the dialogue featured in the rest of the film. Like-wise the film is weak in its regard to other characters outside of Joan and Joe. It exercises tired tropes such as the privileged suffering son (Max Irons) who both despises his father’s disposition and wants his approval at the same time. Then there is the young, conventionally attractive female photographer assigned to capture Joe’s Nobel Prize journey who we are to believe is bowled over so much by Joe’s literary genius that she is willing to sleep with a septuagenarian pushing pills for high blood pressure.
On a whole though, THE WIFE is a thrilling study of a marriage in peril with a duo of flawless performances at the heart of it. We get to see the comedic absurdity in anger with sharp-tongued marital arguments and above all the suffering of two souls who never got to be exactly who they are because they were in each other’s lives.
