RogerEbert.com
The dénouement of The Artist’s Wife, wasting compassion on a character who has earned only the minimum, winds up fully validating an ideology and morality that is complicit in women’s oppression.
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The Artist's Wife
Academy Award-nominee Lena Olin (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) leads this drama as the wife of a renowned painter (fellow nominee Bruce Dern, Nebraska) diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. As he struggles to meet the end of his creative endeavours, she finds solace in picking up the paintbrush again - a passion she abandoned to support her husband. However, her reignited creativity comes at odds with her spouse's health... and envy.
2020Rating: M, Nudity, offensive language & sexual content94 minsUSA
Drama
- Director:
- Tom Dolby ('Last Weekend')
- Writer:
- Tom DolbyNicole BrendingAbdi Nazemian
- Cast:
- Lena OlinBruce DernJuliet RylanceAvan Jogia
The Artist's Wife / Reviews
New York Post
The Artist’s Wife can, at times, come off as a collage of other, better movies.
Full reviewHollywood Reporter
Despite its value in providing superb starring turns by Lena Olin and Bruce Dern, the film never manages to overcome its air of familiarity.
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The New Yorker
If only the style of The Artist’s Wife could scald with equal intent. Alas, it opts for plangency, with a musical score applied like a gentle balm, and a plot that hungers for healing—absurdly so, given the incurable nature of Richard’s plight.
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Los Angeles Times
An absorbing, at times moving look at a woman caught between her own artistic and emotional desires and her devotion to a man who doesn’t seem to deserve her.
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Variety
It’s entirely possible that The Artist’s Wife would have hit the same pitch-perfect notes had it been set during a long hot summer. But the wintery ambiance enhanced by Ryan Earl Parker’s evocative cinematography feels altogether appropriate for a story about one life winding down, and another on the verge of a restorative spring.
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