Glenn Close is phenomenal as a woman who has spent 40 years living in the shadows of her mega-successful husband (Jonathan Pryce, terrific) whose prolific literary career has just netted him a Nobel Prize for literature.
Off to Sweden they go to collect his trophy, with years of hostility and resentment boiling to the surface, all of which is exasperated by a rocky relationship with their brooding son (Max Irons, effectively angry) and the persistence of a sleazy, unauthorized biographer (Christian Slater, out of nowhere and awesome) who is trying to sink his hooks into the family for some juicy and salacious dirt.
The dramatic deck is stacked and the results are intimately explosive, as you watch two people who have loved each other for a very long time question all that’s taken place over the decades.
Directed with simplicity by Bjorn Runge and written with intelligence by Jane Anderson, who adapted the novel by Meg Wolitzer, this is an emotionally bruising film with many layers of narrative depth, and because Close and Pryce were clearly so taken with their demanding roles, there’s a ton of passion oozing out of every frame of this movie.
In particular, it’s incredible to study Close’s face in the quiet moments of this picture – she projects so much with merely a look that words could never express. And for his tricky part, Pryce elicits both disdain and sympathy, sometimes all at once, which is no easy feat. And I really do wonder if the process of winning the Nobel Prize, as depicted in this film, is accurate, because what an insane series of events you’re exposed to!
The Wife is available on iTunes and other streaming providers, and will hit Blu-ray/DVD on January 29th. Close will win the Oscar.
Review by Nick Clement
Summary
This is an excellent movie that took me by surprise – I never expected the story to move in the direction that it did.
