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THE WIFE (2018)
Director: Björn Runge Cast: Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, Max Irons, Christian Slater, Annie Starke, Harry Lloyd, Karin Franz Körlof, Elizabeth McGovern, Alix Wilton Regan MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:40 Release Date: 8/17/18 (limited); 8/24/18 (wider) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 23, 2018 Something seems just a little off about the long-time married couple in The Wife, but it doesn't quite register at first. How much of it, after all, is simply the result of their lengthy period of time together? We notice a few looks from Joan Castleman (Glenn Close) toward her husband Joe (Jonathan Pryce) whenever he's discussing himself or his work. He's a much-celebrated author who revels in that fact, and she exists in the background. Their personalities are entirely different: He likes to talk about himself, and she mostly stays quiet. When Joan sees him talking at length, though, the look of admiration cracks just a bit. It would be imperceptible to people in a big enough crowd, but we spot it, considering that Joan's face takes up a good portion of the frame in those moments. We brush aside the cracks in Joan's visage at first. Maybe it's simply that extreme difference of personality between the couple. Perhaps she has seen the way that Joe talks about himself for too long, and it has just become exhausting. She still loves him. That much is clear, and her love for him is either because of his slightly narcissistic way or in spite of it. Maybe they've been together long enough that she has forgotten which one it is. The point is that the Castlemans look quite happy for a couple that has been married for almost 40 years. They clearly have made a good life together—bought a fine home, raised two children who are now independent-enough adults, are now awaiting the birth of their first grandchild. Joe's writing has paid the bills and more, and at the start of the film, set near the end of 1992, he waits for and receives a phone call from Stockholm, where the Nobel Committee for Literature has determined the recipient of their forthcoming prize. It's Joe, whose writing is described with breathless praise over the phone while Joan listens in on the conversation. There are no cracks in the look of pride on her face then. She knows that her husband's writing has earned this honor. There is, of course, a big reveal about halfway through this story that gives us a much better appreciation for the moments in which Joan's well-kept façade fades. What's fascinating about Jane Anderson's screenplay (based on Meg Wolitzer's novel) is that it doesn't even hint at the possibility of that revelation for a while, and when it does, it comes only in the forms of a hint, a suggestion, and a veiled accusation on the part of another character. What's even more impressive, perhaps, is that we know it's the truth at the moment that the hint is raised. Much of this is credit to Close's performance, which is a masterful display of restraint. Her Joan isn't merely some stately figure of grace and class. That's part of the character's nature, of course, but the extent of those qualities is the picture she puts on for others. There is legitimate restraint happening here in order to keep up that appearance. She's hiding something, whether it be frustration, resentment, jealousy, or downright anger about her marriage and her situation in general. Close knows exactly when to let that appearance of perfection slip, and more importantly, she knows exactly how much to give away. We know the truth of the marriage by the time the film ends, but as for Joan, the truth remains as much a mystery at the close as it is at the start. Most of the story takes place in Stockholm in the build-up to the award ceremony. Joe meets and greets the members of the committee and his fellow award recipients, while Joan sticks to her usual place in the background. Along for the ceremony are the couple's son David (Max Irons), an aspiring writer who desperately wants his father's approval, and Nathaniel Bone (Christian Slater), another writer who desperately wants Joe's approval for an authorized biography. Along the way, there are flashbacks to younger versions of Joe (played by Harry Lloyd) and Joan (played by Annie Starke) meeting in the 1950s, when she was attending university and he was a writing professor. Joe was married and had a baby at the time. Joan didn't see them as an obstacle to her affections for a man who accepted her as a writer. Yes, Joan was a writer at one point, and that's part of this puzzle. Now, Joe insists that his wife doesn't write. Maybe that's the source of those looks of resentment—that, at some point, she had to give up on her own dream to accommodate her husband's. Maybe Nathaniel's knowledge of all of Joe's affairs is the reason for Joan's anger—that her husband toyed with their marriage despite her constant support. She knows that Joe was and remains a philanderer. She sees it still in the way he flirts with his official photographer in Stockholm. Maybe it's all of this and more. The story is, at heart, a mystery, but Anderson and director Björn Runge don't play it as one. They are far more intrigued by the dynamics of this marriage—how it easily could be torn apart and what keeps this couple together—and, to even greater extent, by the riddle of Joan. The Wife doesn't provide easy answers to the nature of either the marriage or Joan. The film knows that the bargains made between two people in love or with oneself don't have simple solutions. They just happened, and Joan has to stick to them. Whether she likes it or not isn't part of the deal. Copyright © 2018 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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