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The Wife Movie Review

The Wife is a 2018 drama film directed by Bjorn Runge and starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce. It’s such a good, very interesting film.

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“I am a kingmaker“

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This is a highly interesting story of a woman who basically ghost wrote all of her husband’s books and when she gets the Nobel Prize and they go to the reception, everything bursts to the surface and all her years of suffering and sacrifice finally come into play.

I loved the story because it got me thinking about how many famous authors throughout human history haven’t actually written their books, but their wives did it instead as the female writers weren’t desirable back then. The movie explores the sexism very well and especially the power of men on the women who lack self-respect. This entire relationship was painful to watch because it was so realistically and subtly portrayed.

I personally found the movie flawed in some areas. The flashbacks are good and revelatory, but ultimately never as strong as their present counterparts. I just loved every scene with Nathaniel as those were the most fun, especially the conversation between him and her. However, he ultimately felt overly caricaturist in the character’s depiction. Also, the ending was fine, but I would have preferred the one where nobody dies and the wife leaves the husband.

Jonathan Pryce is very good in his role and quite effective in all of his scene, but this is of course Glenn Close’s moment to shine and she did just that, delivering possibly the year’s finest performance. I didn’t expect it at all as I thought that maybe she garnered all that attention at the awards because “it’s her time to win”, but I was in the wrong as this performance is absolutely stunning.

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Just in her eyes and her look you can read a lot of emotion and the film succeeds in its structure where the subtler build-up leads to an emotional outburst in the third act mostly because of her as she killed it in both the subtle and the dramatic moments. She demands your presence and I loved watching her.

The movie’s also well shot, directed and particularly well written in its dialogue. It’s in the end a very underrated film which should be talked about more despite its flaws as it’s not only worth watching for her performance, but also for its very interesting storyline.

Despite somewhat less interesting flashbacks and an inferior ending, The Wife is otherwise a very good movie that is worth a watch not just for the acting, but also for its very interesting, dramatic and emotionally powerful storyline. But of course Glenn Close is the standout here in one truly extraordinary performance in a role that demanded terrific talent which she so evidently showcased.