A poignant display of subtlety, strength
The Wife
★★★ 1/2 (out of 4) Starring Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce. Directed by Bjorn Runge. Opens Friday at the Varsity. 101 minutes. 14A
“I don’t want to be thought of as the long-suffering wife,” Joan Castleman pronounces with quiet emphasis.
But it’s clear that, after decades of marriage to Joe, who’s just been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, something is amiss.
The Wife is a well-crafted story about relationships and about duty, including subverting one’s own needs in deference to another.
With Glenn Close in the lead role, it’s also unexpectedly poignant and powerful.
From the opening scene when Joe (Jonathan Pryce) playfully forces himself on his wife — he’d probably call it seduction, she’d rather be doing something else — the dynamics of the relationship are set. Joan is dutiful, though not submissive, even as her eyes project a sense that rivers of emotion are roil- ing beneath the surface.
We initially see Joe as not a bad man per se, just intensely self-involved and too wrapped up in his own needs to spare his son, a budding writer, a few moments of praise and encouragement for a short story. Clearly, David (Max Irons) longs for his father’s approval and just as clearly, his father’s lifelong love affair with himself means it’s not going to come easily.
The story unfolds in two time periods, one in 1992, with the Castlemans jetting off to Stock- holm for the prize ceremony, and one starting in the late 1950s, when young Joan falls under the thrall of her married creative-writing professor. Even back then, Joe’s budding narcissism is evident. (Director Bjorn Runge cannily casts An- nie Starke, Close’s real-life daughter, as young Joan, a nice touch that works.)
On the plane to Stockholm, an unctuous writer named Nathaniel Bone (Christian Slater) attempts to ingratiate himself with the couple, but Joe’s too vain and Joan’s too smart to fall easily into his trap. Bone may or may not know something that could upend everything.
There’s already talk of a seventh Oscar nomination for Close, and for good reason. Her performance is subtle and nuanced and even a little mysterious as Joan, a woman whose placid exterior hints at a range of deep emotions as well as inner strength.
Pryce strikes a fine counterpoint and never overplays the role of Joe while conveying a sense of entitlement and vanity that is sure to strike a chord, particularly among women who know the type.
Elizabeth McGovern deserves kudos for a lively performance as a crusty older woman who offers some unfortunate advice to young Joan.
Runge ably guides the enterprise to a shattering and satisfying conclusion.