{"id":5957,"date":"2018-09-07T07:26:09","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T14:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=5957"},"modified":"2018-09-07T07:26:09","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T14:26:09","slug":"review-the-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=5957","title":{"rendered":"Review: THE WIFE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Featuring two fantastic performances, \u201cThe Wife\u201d raises many provocative questions, but not just the obvious ones.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"\"\"Joan met Joe in college. He was a passionate professor, and she was his adoring student. He also had a thing for walnuts and writing messages on them to his romantic conquests. When Joe leaves his wife to be with Joan, his writing career takes off. Sometimes all that is needed to spark creativity is a good muse.<\/p>\n

Years and many best-selling novels later, Joe receives a call in the middle of the night. He\u2019s being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Joan (Glenn Close) and Joe (Jonathan Pryce) dance gleefully on the bed. They are happy and the honor is theirs to be shared. But Joe gets all the credit.<\/p>\n

Less a mystery and more a chronicle of the crushing pressure of hiding a great secret to one\u2019s detriment, \u201cThe Wife\u201d becomes a showcase for two great actors. The story is particularly relevant today in the wake of the MeToo movement and efforts to level the gender playing field. But the relationships are what makes the film work. Especially the relationship Joe and Joan have with their children, and in particular with their son David (Max Irons).<\/p>\n

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A would-be writer, who is struggling to find his voice and his place in the world, David seeks acceptance and understanding from his mega-successful father. But Joe offers up little of substance when talking about the boy\u2019s writing. One questions whether he has even taken time to read what David has written. On the other hand, we can tell immediately that Joan has taken each and every word from her son and turned it over carefully. But it isn\u2019t her opinion that he wants.<\/p>\n

There is no mystery to the central conflict present in \u201cThe Wife.\u201d Joe plays the figurehead and Joan is the true talent behind the great works. And in an attempt to get to the truth, a scummy biographer named Nathaniel (Christian Slater) keeps poking around. No one plays smarmy as well as Slater these days, and in one scene, his Nathaniel even makes a play for Joan in hopes that she will open up to him. His instincts are right, of course, but getting confirmation on the record proves to be elusive.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Swedish director Bj\u00f6rn Runge (\u201cDaybreak\u201d) handles the procedural aspects of receiving the Nobel well, using the amusing formality of it to balance out the heavier relationship conflicts. And he\u2019s blessed to have such a great team player in Pryce, who allows himself to look positively pathetic in places. In one very telling scene, Pryce, who is constantly nibbling or eating something throughout the performance, attempts to write something on a walnut. It\u2019s the way Pryce shakes a bit and struggles with the nut in his hands that sells the character’s vanishing confidence.<\/p>\n

And on the other end of the spectrum is Close, playing opposite Pryce as the always in control wife, who manages nearly every aspect of Joe\u2019s career. Runge\u2019s camera is carefully trained on her as she takes it all in. Her husband is so terribly insecure, but, perhaps, she had a hand in the coming emotional collapse.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen this kind of narrative before in, for example, Tim Burton\u2019s perfectly fine 2015 film \u201cBig Eyes.\u201d Here the events are much tighter, and although through flashback we get some clues as to how the Joe\/Joan relationship developed, the bulk of \u201cThe Wife\u201d takes place over a couple days. And as much as the gender equality issues are important, I think the father, mother, and son story is much more impactful.<\/p>\n

There is a moment where I questioned Joan\u2019s thought processes. She smiles slyly even mischievously as those around her praise her husband and his writing. And when she looks at her son when he asks her about his own writing, the same look comes over her. Close is so restrained and taut in this role that it is unnerving.<\/p>\n

\"\"You never feel the least bit sorry for Joan, and that\u2019s precisely because Close plays her so utterly in control that it hinges on manipulative. It\u2019s a character that could be explored more in another chapter. I was reminded of Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) in Netflix\u2019 \u201cHouse of Cards.\u201d It\u2019s an impressive bit of unsympathetic acting, Close gets the guarded characterization so right it\u2019s eerie.<\/p>\n

With six previous Oscar nominations dating back to 1983\u2019s \u201cThe World According to Garp,\u201d Close is an actor that is long overdue for proper recognition. \u201cThe Wife\u201d is one of her more understated roles but displays the actress\u2019 great power of presence. Just as she brought a lovely hush to the audience when standing up in a crowd in \u201cThe Natural\u201d or how she managed her gender identity so carefully in \u201cAlbert Nobbs,\u201d Close is at her best when she\u2019s not yelling and flailing about. \u201cThe Wife\u201d offers that quiet and intense Glenn Close, and it\u2019s a wonder to see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Close and Pryce are at the top of their game in taut, provocative drama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[753,754,755,79,756,757,374,141,50,76,758],"class_list":["post-5957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-big-eyes","tag-bjorn-runge","tag-christian-slater","tag-drama","tag-glenn-close","tag-jonathan-pryce","tag-max-irons","tag-metoo","tag-movie-review","tag-oscar","tag-the-wife","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}