The Wife **** (2018, Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, Christian Slater, Elizabeth McGovern, Max Irons) – Movie Review

Swedish director Björn Runge’s 2018 The Wife is a hugely engaging and engrossing drama as Joan Castleman (Glenn Close) the wife of the title questions her life choices as she travels to Stockholm with her writer husband Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce), who is to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. They are accompanied by their surly would-be writer son David (Max Irons) and pursued by Joe’s intrusive would-be biographer Nathaniel Bone (Christian Slater).

The Wife might be a storm in a Swedish teacup, but what a tempest! It is the Close and Pryce Show, and they are great together, perfectly matched, giving perfect performances, suggesting 40 years of back story, a lifetime of co-operation mixed with frustation, love mixed with pain. They both have steely glints in their eyes.

Slater gets a slight look in, and he’s good, nice and slimy. We do get to see the back story is flashbacks to the way they were, with Harry Lloyd as Young Joe Castleman and Annie Starke as Young Joan Castleman. The flashbacks are interesting but not really necessary, and they take screen time from the main attraction – Close and Pryce.

The effective screenplay is by Jane Anderson, based on the novel The Wife by Meg Wolitzer. It makes for a highly intelligent, touching and amusing film, a polished piece of work, smooth and sleek, but edgy.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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