The movie The Wife is about so many things, slivers and stabs of relatable elements of people’s lives, all told through the stoic-ness of Glenn Close’s character, Joan. Like what? Let’s see, there’s the commentary on gender issues of women being taken seriously in traditionally male roles; the balance of needing each other and leaning on each other in a marriage; differing parenting styles; the importance of ego; and the consequences of secrets and lies.
Joan and Joe’s (played by Jonathan Pryce) lives so deeply intertwined by secrets and the decisions they’ve made together. One event, one phone call, starts it all unraveling, revealing just how much this couple has been functioning in dysfunction for decades.
In trying to be a closed book, Glenn Close’s Joan is an open book. We see her so clearly, every thought, every pain, every urge to scream while believing she is being expressionless except for her own, naturally slightly upturned corners of her mouth. We see Joe’s constant guilt. His need to puff himself up with affairs because he knows he isn’t really the great author everyone thinks he is. His heart, his literal heart, keeps reminding him of the truth.
Christian Slater is smarmy and devious in The Wife. But there’s still this tiny bit of likability for him because he’s trying to get at the truth – albeit for his own, selfish reasons.
Max Irons is the couple’s pained son, always living in the shadow of his father’s literary greatness. You wonder why he would even dare to go into the “family business.” Why put yourself in the situation of always seeking approval, always feeling second best (or some number way down the line. His pain and self-abuse is cliché but understandable so we tolerate it.
One of the lessons of this movie is to not listen to the advice of others. In a critical scene, Elizabeth McGovern, being honored by her fellow alumni for her literature is introduced to a young Glenn Close (played by her real life daughter, Annie Stark). McGovern’s character advises Joan not to become a writer because female writers will never be taken seriously. She takes one of her own books of the shelf, cracks open the book and says that’s the sound of no one having ever read her books. This cuts Joan to the quick, dashing her dreams of being a great writer in her own right. But she finds a way, in a twisted way.
The Wife is a painful movie to watch but you can’t look away. It pulls and pushes and pulls again – just like the couple’s marriage. It’s a cautionary tale about being stuck in a situation you know is wrong but that you can’t see your way free of. And it also proves, you can’t keep a good woman down. The very last moments of the last scene say it all. Watch.
The Wife is currently playing, in wide release.
Comments are closed.