The Reel Review
Seven time Oscar nominee Glenn Close stars in this drama about the wife of a celebrated author, who finds herself questioning her life choices on the eve of his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in Stockholm. The film is an adaptation of Meg Wolitzer’s best-selling 2004 novel.
The story, with its flashbacks of their earlier years played by Close’s real life daughter Annie Starke and Harry Lloyd (Game of Thrones, The Iron Lady), is a pretty straightforward affair, gradually and subtly revealing the secret details and compromises behind their complicated relationship. Close gives an epic performance as the woman caught between loving and loathing both her life and her selfish cad of a husband, also expertly portrayed by Jonathan Pryce (Game of Thrones, Pirates of the Caribbean). While the film’s “big reveal” is itself not so surprising, Close’s subtle facial expressions – revealing a lifetime of rage and pain behind the calm demeanor her character presents to the world – makes this a noteworthy film worth seeing.
REEL FACTS
• With seven Oscar nominations, Glenn Close has more nominations without a win than any other living actor. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in The World According to Garp (1982) The Big Chill (1983), and The Natural (1984), and nominated for Best Actress for the now iconic Fatal Attraction (1987), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Albert Nobbs (2011) and The Wife (2018)
• The Wife is Annie Starke’s film debut with mother Glenn Close, although they didn’t have any scenes together (they were playing the same character, after all). Although set in Stockholm, most of the film was shot in Glasgow, Scotland
• Max Irons, who co-started with Close in 2017’s Crooked House, is the son of Jeremy Irons, who co-starred with Close in 1990’s Reversal of Fortune and 1993’s The House of the Spirits
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