The Wife (2018)

I love this movie so much

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

The Age of Commercialism

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

I thought the PHANTOM THREAD was the worst movie of the year then I saw this pile of poop. Wow. It is like we give two 70 year old actors a script and say "now try to out-act each other!" It is obviously a play since the sets never change. If you can't sleep ... rent it. Guaranteed. Do people really live like this? Never being happy and blowing every nuance of every word the other says out of proportion? Sad little failure of an acting exercise.

This is a masterpiece. Great casting especially Glenn Close as the more than loyal wife who finally finds her own voice. This is a statement of a marriage with true affection between the couple that implodes when he, after many years, receives public adulation and recognition and she remains "the wife". Script, direction and soundtrack exceptional. Highly recommended.

I thought The Wife (2017) was good however not great. The ensemble cast for the most part give fine performances. Glenn Close's performance as Joan Castleman is outstanding with a finely balanced display of emotions from a woman who has been cast in the shadow of her husband's greatness. However, Jonathan Price as the celebrated author Joseph Castleman is not as convincing and lacks the skill and power of an actor like Close. One wonders whether other actors (such as Sean Connery) might have been better suited to the task. The Castleman's son, David (Ben Irons), adds to the tensions within the family however more could have been made of this to expose the brutal behaviour of his father, Joseph. Christian Slater has a great time playing the sleazy would be biographer, Nathaniel Bone. Some of the cinematography is spectacular, especially the aerial shots of Stockholm and in particular the long and swooping camera shot of Glenn Close's face in the last moments of the movie in the hotel room. This movie is worth seeing for Close's performance alone. The storyline of a decades' long charade unraveling is captivating.

This is an exceptionally compelling critique of patriarchal society, and plays out like one of the great feminist tracts. The couple's surname is Castleman (the man of the castle). The acting is sensational from everyone, especially the two leads. I don't think Jonathan Pryce is getting enough credit for his performance: in some ways he has the harder role as the supreme manipulator. And the beautiful Glenn Close gives a heartbreaking Oscar-worthy portrayal of dutiful simmering repression and inequality. Without wanting to give too much away, there is a twist which could've seemed far-fetched were it not so well-handled. A clever, emotionally draining watch that'll stay with you long afterwards. 10/10.