Tropic Sprockets / The Wife

By Ian Brockway

Marital discontent has a long history in print and film. Few subjects
are more potent with pathos and poison. “The Wife” directed by Björn
Runge and adapted from a novel by Meg Wolitzer is an unsparing look at a
thirty year marriage and friendship. From the first second to the last,
it is unrelenting.

Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) is an aging writer. One night in the wee
hours, he gets a long distance call. It is the Swedish Academy.
Castleman has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. A dumbstruck Castleman
asks to humbly hold the call while his wife, Joan (Glenn Close) gets on
the other line. It is no dream. Castleman is set to receive the most
prestigious of prizes.

But all is not as ‘winning’ as it seems.

Gradually, instance by instance, we see that although Joe loves his
wife, he is cold and even dismissive treating Joan with a rote
formality. This coolness extends to his bohemian son, David (Max Irons)
who has writing aspirations of his own and gets only cursory responses
in return.

Castleman is happy to bask in his newfound glory, stuffing himself with
the complementary pastries and chocolates at the Swedish hotel, while
perusing the library of his famous books. But why can’t he recall the
names of his characters? It is the plane trip, certainly the jet lag
especially at his age.

Joe goes to the orientation meeting and is appointed with many aides to
help him along the awards process. One of them is a young photographer
Linnea (Karin Franz Körlof) and what’s the harm with a little flirting?

Meanwhile Joe is increasingly dispassionate with his spouse, only to
publicly gush at speeches.

Joan simmers.

The audience is left to play detective as to how it all happens and this
one of the joys of the film. Just what is going on between the couple?
Is Castleman losing it or is it a ploy for sympathy? With such
resentment why are they married at all?

In between the hissing, there are wonderful moments showing the couple
during the 1960s. Young Joan (Annie Maude Starke) and Joe (Harry Lloyd)
were literary, sneaky and very in love.

Terrific too is actor Christian Slater who as the obsessive biographer
Nathaniel Bone, is neither honest nor unkind. As with all of the
characters, their true natures are left to the viewer, very much in the
way of an existential tale of suspense.

Glenn Close has never been better and Pryce is a perfect match. “The
Wife” belongs in the same company as “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
and “Kramer vs. Kramer”. Unlike those excellent films however, the
pushes and pulls of the characters here are blurry and mercurial with
plenty of positives and negatives, very much like life.

This is a super-charged and powerful film, not to be missed, and
husbands may well avoid the eating of walnuts for months to come.

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Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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