Directed by Björn Runge. Reviewed by Paul Sorrell

With a strong ensemble cast headed by Glenn Close, The Wife offers the audience a distinctive and ironic take on the old saying: “Behind every successful man there’s a woman.”

When distinguished New York writer Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) is rung in the middle of the night and told that he’s won the Nobel Prize for literature, he and his wife Joan (Glenn Close) jump up and down on the bed for joy. But is his success as singlehanded as he’d like people to believe? Does his wife’s contribution amount to something more than the endless round of domestic chores and childcare duties necessary to keep the “great man” bound to his desk?

While the main action is set in a plush hotel in Stockholm on the eve of the prize-giving ceremony, the personal and literary relationship between the couple is fleshed out through flashbacks. These date from the time when Joe was a university writing teacher and aspiring author, and Joan a talented student whom he seduced, leading to divorce from his first wife, Carol.

The other key characters are their son, David (Max Irons), a moody, self-entitled young man who is also a wannabe writer, and Nathaniel Bone (Christian Slater), Joe’s would-be biographer who wheedles his way into the confidences of mother and son in the hope of finding some marketable dirt on Joe.

For most of the film, Joe and Joan are involved in one long sparring match. Hot-tempered and ambitious, Joe has repeatedly cheated on Joan in more ways than one. For all her self-effacing charm, Joan is increasingly unwilling to play second fiddle to a man and a writer whom she has come to see as a fraud.

The Wife asks pointed questions about the devaluing of female creativity, women’s continuing subjection to men (even in the 21st century, although the film is set in the 1990s), and the reasons for their complicity in such situations. One of the most telling scenes is set at a 1960s book launch for a female author, who convinces the youthful Joan that there’s no future in being a woman writer: “If you can find anyone to publish your book, no-one will read it.”

Despite some heavy-handed touches, The Wife raises some important issues about creativity and artistic attribution, and is (mostly) engrossing and entertaining. It’s worth going to see for Close’s performance alone. 

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 230 September 2018: 32