Drama in which a devoted wife questions her life after her husband is selected to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The Wife crackles with contemporary angst, with lines bemoaning old men declaring the genius of other old men, while first impressions are left in tatters in a film that delights in letting the scales slowly fall from our eyes.
The Wife is brilliantly acted by its two leads but is never remotely credible.
Close gives a performance that demands the Oscar voters consider her for a seventh time, and with Pryce matching her barb for barb, this is a heavyweight piece of theatre that grips whenever they’re on screen.
An intelligent drama that treats its disempowered heroine with the respect she deserves.
The Wife is another drearily middle-brow literary adaptation in which a fine performance from its female lead exposes how cinematically flat the surrounding drama is.
Close is superb as a long-suffering literary spouse whose marriage reaches crisis point when her husband wins a Nobel prize.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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