THE WIFE – GLENN CLOSE AND JONATHAN PRYCE IN INTIMATE MODE

THE WIFE is an intimate story shot with intimacy in every frame.  Beginning with a closely observed, character-setting sexual encounter, the film tells its story on the faces of its cast. Originally written in the first person by Meg Wolitzer, the novel was described by the New York Times as “near heartbreaking document of feminist realpolitik”.  This film, written by Jane Anderson and directed by Björn Runge doesn’t use a voice over or any narrative from its eponymous character, the commentary is in the faces.

Joan (Glenn Close) is the wife of the title.  Even as a younger woman played by Annie Starke she was shy to put herself and her own writing in front of intimidating English lecturer Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce, younger version played by Harry Lloyd).  It is now a lifetime later and she and Joe are a long time married couple.  

He is a writer of distinction whose work has changed the writing landscape and he is excited to accept the Nobel Prize for Literature.  Bounce on the bed excited.  Joan is the voice of reason with her come off the bed you will hurt yourself caution.  In the way of her nature and experience, she will run interference for him, see to his welfare with others and be alert as old wounds open.   The perfect wife? Add to the mix, a truculent son (Max Irons) and an investigative writer (Christian Slater) who wants to be biographer of the great man.

The small story is beautifully realised by Cinematographer Ulf Brantås with pullins and fade outs adding variety to the character study of inner lives .  Glenn Close is mesmerising as Joan and her growth through the film is part of its charm, one never tires of seeing the changes that flash across her guarded yet somehow open expression.  If Joan grows in confidence and realisation, Pryce as Joe on the other hand is  all surface all the time.  Despite the camera being so close he manages to give no hidden depth.  To all around him he is generous and loving and Pryce’s bonhomie carries exquisitely to show a man who revels in his desires.  Constantly eating, he has a way of calling Joan over to him and he also has a habit of noticing every pretty young woman who enters his orbit.

And many are drawn to his celebrity now that he is to be feted.  There is sumptuous detail in his surroundings, especially the prize giving dinner, the mise en scène beautifully in the background for the contemporary scenes and strongly evocative of period in the flash backs.  The lighting is often stark to fully explore the faces, Close is simply luminous, and the audio simple and ambient, restaurant and bar muzak only just audible under the dialogue.

There is a mystery in Joe and Joan’s relations and via the stalking journalist, a restrained performance from Christian Slater, it arrives almost unnoticed 45 minutes in.  The mystery will be the impetus for the climax of the film.  There is a tabula rasa in the ending of the film which, being shot entirely in closeup with no cutaways, creates a sense of new beginning.

Breathtakingly engrossing THE WIFE releases in Australia on August 2, 2018 through Icon Film Distribution.