And then resent it?

realizes what she’s done, and her husband hasn’t ever acknowledged that.”

The 1992-set drama flashes back to the beginning of Joe (Jonathan Pryce) and Joan’s marriage in the late 1950s, when young Joan (played by Close’s daughter, Annie Starke) was writing her own work. After a talented but overlooked female author warns her that novels by women can never reach a large audience, Joan moves to “editing ” books by Joe, her former creative writing professor. It’s not long before both silently and implicitly agree that Joan is simply a better writer than Joe. She takes over, losing her name but keeping her work.

“She’s been complicit,” Close says. “It lets her write, and she is happiest when she’s at that desk, writing. It’s something she has accepted, but I think in the film (she has) a growing awareness (that) he almost believes all this. And she can’t deal with that.”

So he gets the medal, and she gets to watch. The main question of The Wife is whether she’ll ever get the recognition she deserves — or even if she wants it.