THE HALFLIFTED VEIL
In Mrs Wilson, a widow discovers her husband’s secret lives. By KEVIN MA
RUTH WILSON HAS had her share of acting challenges. She played calm, rational Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire on the stage, the headstrong titular character in Jane Eyre and a conflicted woman having an extramarital relationship in TV series The Affair. But she has said that no experience has been as profound as playing the main character in Mrs Wilson: her own grandmother.
The true story revolves around the secrets of Alec Wilson, a writer and a former intelligence officer who died of a heart attack in 1962. After his death, his wife of 22 years, Alison, discovered that he had never divorced his first wife and had built an elaborate web of lies that he maintained for decades. Thirty years after the shocking discovery, Alison finally wrote a private memoir for her sons detailing what happened. That memoir became the basis for this dramatic, suspenseful series.
The three-part miniseries written by Anna Symon focuses on the consequences of Alec’s secrets. He’s not the only liar in the series: it turns out everyone around him told lies to keep the truth from one another.
But the series doesn’t vilify Alec. Symon maintains a surprising degree of neutrality, portraying him as an enigmatic character who was charming and brilliant, but impenetrable. The British government refuses to release the records about him to this day, which means viewers are left hanging over certain details at the end of the series. Yet it’s this elusiveness that makes Mrs Wilson such a compelling watch.
Alison isn’t simply portrayed as a victim, either. Mrs Wilson is also about her internal conflict as she is forced to decide between keeping Alec’s secrets to herself or revealing everything out of spite. Ruth Wilson gives a powerful performance as a woman who can barely maintain a facade of composure as the shocking extent of her husband’s betrayal becomes clear. In the face of her pain, Mrs Wilson still manages to convey a moral complexity about the events – some of which may be best left hidden.