The Wife

The Wife

Poster for The Wife

Scoring a Golden Globe for her performance, Glenn Close decides to leave her husband (Jonathan Pryce) while travelling in Europe in this drama based on Meg Wolitzer's novel. More

After spending forty years sacrificing her dreams to fan the flames of her charismatic husband Joe (Pryce) and his literary career, fed-up wife Joan (Close) decides to end their relationship on the eve of Joe's Nobel Prize win.

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8 reviews
Award
winner
Directed by Björn Runge

2018Rating: M, Offensive language & sexual references100 minsSweden, USA

Drama

Director:: Björn Runge ('Daybreak', 'Mouth to Mouth', 'Happy End')
Writer:: Jane Anderson
Cast:: Glenn CloseJonathan PryceChristian SlaterAnnie StarkeMax IronsElizabeth McGovernHarry Lloyd

Streaming (4 Providers)

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The Wife | Awards

Award Winner

Best Performance (Glenn Close), Golden Globes 2019

The Wife | Reviews

Flicks, Katie Parker

Based on Meg Woltizer’s 2003 novel of the same name, The Wife follows Joan Castleman and her novelist husband Joe as they travel to Stockholm so that he can be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. A veritable power couple, Joan is to Joe the ultimate alpha wife and the cornerstone of their family - yet, as we flash back to their courtship when Joan was an impressionable and gifted young writing student and Joe her married English professor, it quickly becomes apparent that things between the pair (and Joe’s much lauded body of work) are not what they seem.

Flicks, Glenn Dunks

Glenn Close is an island of genius amid this otherwise mediocre affair set within the upper echelons of the arts world. The actress finally gets a big screen role that allows her to dig deeper than the blockbuster cameos (Guardians of the Galaxy, Warcraft) and bland comedies (Father Figures) that have filled the last few years of her career. It’s just a shame that everything else around her is half-cooked, relying on Close’s magnetism to fill in the blanks of a screenplay that is too often messy and relies too heavily on the relevancy of its story.

Variety

[Close] is a marvel of twisty understatement here, delivering emotions that conceal as much as they reveal, and offering onion-like layers that invite repeat viewings in light of some of the film's later revelations.

The Guardian

This is an unmissable movie for Glenn Close fans. Actually, you can't watch it without being a fan.

Sydney Morning Herald

Close must be one of the most controlled actresses on the screen. She works incrementally, building this performance bit by bit with tight smiles and wary, knowing looks.

Stuff

A showcase for two outstanding performances by Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce.

Screen Daily

Though not formally daring and fairly conventional in its storytelling, this is a quality picture which should appeal to arthouse audiences in festivals and elsewhere.

Metro Magazine

Glenn Close is perfectly cast. One of cinema’s great Sphinxes, she glides smoothly through the crush of her husband’s acolytes, as the well-meant humiliations pile up.

Hollywood Reporter

Like a bomb ticking away toward detonation, Glenn Close commands the center of The Wife: still, formidable and impossible to look away from.

FilmInk

A small film but one of considerable power.

The Wife | Trailers

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US Trailer

US Trailer

The Wife | Release Details

The Wife is available to stream in New Zealand now on Google Play and Apple TV and Academy On Demand and AroVision.