"The Wife" by Björn Runge (2017)

You know when important people get their important awards and step into stage to thank God, producer, hairdressers and technicians - they usually end thanking the most to their spouses as the most important people in their lives, somebody who supported them trough thick and thin. Something about this speech must have planted a seed of idea into writer Meg Wolitzer who played with the idea what if the spouse is really the most responsible for this public success? She wrote the novel that is now being filmed and glitters with almost perfect cast amongst the movies full of supersonic special effects, superheroes and animated gimmicks. As much as I love going to the cinema, its a bit disappointing to glance at sameness that prevails now and "The Wife" is literary the only drama made for adult audience - the lonely island that deserve every praise and strangely, this very old-fashioned setting might be example of endangered species - from what I see around, the cinema is moving towards fast & furious special effects spectacles and there is noticeably less and less real stories involving real people.

"The Wife" is about elderly writer who gets Nobel prise and now, in the autumn of his life is showered with attention, prises, recognitions and perhaps a bit too much protocols that have him confused and exhausted all over Stockholm. The stoic wife and surly son are also in tow, smiling for the cameras and living their private dramas behind closed doors. Exciting as it is to receive such high honour, its also clear that writer Joseph Castleman is just like his peers, a bit uncomfortable in the spotlight and instead of enjoying what must have been the highlight of his life, actually feels claustrophobic and uncomfortable with all this fussing around him. The wife accepts all of this with a patient smile, the son is sulking and argumentative, while nosey biographer (Christian Slater) tries to wiggle his way into couple's private life, although they clearly avoid his company and suspect he just wants to publish scandalous gossip. 

Without going too much into the story itself, I want to say it was tour de force as acting, script and atmosphere - rarely I have seen something like this in a modern cinema and loved every minute of it. In fact, it obviously takes director with European sensibility to create something like this. As Castleman, Jonathan Pryce is charismatic and magnetic - charming under spotlights, nightmare to be around in a private life. For Glenn Close this is probably a role of a lifetime - I have seen her zillion times and nothing so far matches intensity, subtlety and power of this particular character. Its all about chemistry and energy between a couple who have lifetime of living together - in the interesting flashbacks we see them as much younger people in 1950s and 1960s, played by excellent younger actors Harry Lloyd and Annie Starke. 

Excited as I was with (finally) a movie that presents adult people in interesting situations, I couldn't get another similar movie out of my head - back in 2009 "The Last Station" was about another elderly couple loving and hating each other but Christopher Plummer (as Tolstoy) and Helen Mirren (as his wife) loved, laughed and giggled all the way trough - one could tell they genuinely loved each other. Here, curiously, I find that I don't actually see love between Pryce and Close - theirs is more a master/servant relationship based on husband domination and wife's silent acceptance. That Close eventually emerges as far stronger of the two is not really a surprise because Close always had intensity about her, that this time have been kept in check for the sake of the role and it works wonderfully for her. However, I could also imagine several other elderly actresses doing wonders with this role (Judi Dench for example) its just a excellent part to play and it must have been very exciting to bite into such part.