Yesterday's film was a novel-based movie called The Wife. I was not familiar with the novel, from Meg Wolitzer, but the premise of the film intrigued me. We have watched a couple of large budget films as well as a faith-based film, so we figured we were due for a film with an artsy feel. It was a decent afternoon out, but this film could have definitely waited for video.
Joseph Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) has written many novels over his lifetime. His personal relationships feel carefully managed as his wife, Joan (Glenn Close), nags him about his incessant eating among other bad habits. He is a bit narcissistic, a trait that inflates when he receives a midnight call that he has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Joe travels to Sweden with is wife and son David (Max Irons) who is struggling to find his own literary voice. The are stalked on the trip by a biographer (Christian Slater) who is intent on writing Joseph's biography. The tense, focused attention of the award pick away at old festering sores, revealing the depth of dysfunction and deception that lingers at the edges of their delicately balanced existence.
I did not read the novel upon which this film was based. The film manages some humor and has a mildly interesting plot. However, it didn't ring true to me. The characters were decent. I really wanted to like them. What was meant to be a twist was to heavily foreshadowed, making the film feel a bit plodding. We knew early where we were going but took forever to get there. And to obtain the backstory (which was less-than-compelling) in the process. I think that might be the format, squeezing a novel into a one hour, forty minute film. In spite of that, the film felt longer than it was. It has sluggish pacing at times, interspersed with some decent humor. A couple of the characters, like David, felt like throw-away characters. I get the reason for his character, but it was not well developed. The story was really a mixed bag, made better by the casting.
The Wife benefited from a great cast. Christian Slater was intriguing as the nagging biographer. He added a nice counterpoint to the main characters, who could be tiresome at times. Glenn Close was amazing. She delivered stoicism with what appeared to be little effort. She was great. Pryce was strong, but the weakest of the three. Max Irons was interesting as the son. It is a bit distracting for me because he looks like my own son. So it wasn't a hard sell for me at all. The story was a bit bland, but the casting was able to infuse a bit of life into the story.
I didn't find much objectionable about The Wife. There was a silly sex scene near the beginning of the film that didn't include any nudity. There were adult themes, to include a great deal of discussion regarding infidelity. The main component of the rating may have been the language, which included frequent use of the F word. The film included contextual alcohol use and a brief reference to drug use, but was fairly tame on that point. This film will bore teens and children to tears, but teen audiences or better should be adequate.
This is not a great week for newly released movies. Most of the films are in the 5-range (out of 10). The Wife is in the upper echelon of films currently at the theater if you are looking to head out sometime this week for a flick. If you are in no rush to go to the theater, you won't be disappointed if you wait for this film to stream. It's a mediocre film with sluggish pacing. The casting was good, adding a bit to my enjoyment of the film, but I wasn't blown away. It was an average film. 7/10.
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