Skip to main content

The Wife review – Glenn Close in a class of her own

Close is superb as a long-suffering literary spouse whose marriage reaches crisis point when her husband wins a Nobel prize

Some of the very best screen performances only fully reveal themselves on second viewing. Take Glenn Close in The Wife, an intriguing (if occasionally contrived) tragicomic drama lifted shoulder high by the six-time Oscar nominee in one of her most deliciously complex roles. When it comes to portraying conflicting emotions, Close has always been in a class of her own, thanks to her kaleidoscopically expressive eyes and precise physical gestures. But rarely has her ability to tell two stories with a single look been more astutely employed than in this elegantly melancholy portrait of a marriage in crisis.

Close plays Joan Castleman, steadfast partner of celebrated author Joseph (Jonathan Pryce), whom we first meet on the eve of his Nobel prize win in 1992. When the early morning phone call comes, Joe insists that his wife pick up the extension to share the news of his victory. We watch her listening to the announcement in closeup, a shifting ocean of pride, regret, astonishment, and... could that be horror? Even when Joe gets her to jump up and down on the bed with him as he sings “I won the Nobel! I won the Nobel!” there’s something about her manner that evokes a silent scream.

Continue reading...

from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2zFzvZC
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Knives Out review – Daniel Craig goes Columbo in Cluedo whodunnit

Craig grills an all-star lineup of suspects when a wealthy novelist is found dead in Rian Johnson’s sharp, country-house murder mystery R ian Johnson unsheathes an entertainingly nasty, if insubstantial detective mystery with his new film, Knives Out. Back in 2005, his debut movie Brick (a high-school thriller) paid tribute to the hardboiled noir genre. Now he does the same thing for cosy crime, although there is nothing that cosy about it. Knives Out has a country house full of frowning suspects, deadpan servants and smirking ne’er-do-wells and an amusing performance from Daniel Craig as Benoît Blanc, the brilliant amateur sleuth from Louisiana who annoys the hell out of one and all by smiling enigmatically, occasionally plinking a jarring high note on the piano during the drawing-room interrogation and pronouncing in his southern burr: “Ah suh-spect far-wuhl play!” Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2L0NKO4
Post a Comment
Read more

Thirty Years of Adonis film review: sexually explicit gay drama mixes porn and pomposity

1/5 stars The line between soft-core porn and pompous art-house cinema grows ever finer in the seventh feature by writer, director and producer Danny Cheng Wan-cheung, also known as Scud. Intended as a philosophical statement about the meaninglessness of life, Thirty Years of Adonis instead comes across as a badly misjudged piece of sensationalist filmmaking. God’s Own Country review: gay love story set in the Yorkshire countryside The film revolves around aspiring gay actor Adonis Yang... from South China Morning Post - Culture feed https://ift.tt/2qgQkop
Post a Comment
Read more

Tracey Emin decorates Regent's Park and a celebration of Islamic creativity – the week in art

Emin and others survey the state of sculpture, Glenn Brown takes his decadent imagination to Newcastle and artists offer northern exposure – all in your weekly dispatch Frieze Sculpture Park Tracey Emin, Barry Flanagan and John Baldessari are among the artists decorating Regent’s Park with a free survey of the state of sculpture. • Regent’s Park, London , 4 July until 7 October. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2IDCpPV
Post a Comment
Read more