The Wife - Okay

Starring: Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, Max Irons, Christian Slater
Director: Bjorn Runge
Runtime: 1 hour, 39 minutes
Drama | 2018

I was pretty excited when I saw that this movie has a run time of 1 hour and 39 minutes, but I wasn’t excited when I saw that the only thing listed under genre was “drama.” Movies that are just labeled as drama typically aren’t ones that I have been fond of, I like it when there’s a “crime” or “historical” written in front of that word, gives it more interesting of a plot. Well, The Wife, was just a drama and it was fairly boring I’m sad to say.

Now, the movie itself was well put together, well acted, and had a good story to it. But I just can’t sit there and watch a boring movie unless it has some kind of meaning to it. The Wife is about an elderly couple. The husband (played by Jonathan Pryce) is about to receive the Nobel Prize in literature. Him and his wife (played by Glenn Close) go to Sweden to receive this prize and along the way she has some realizations about their relationship - shown in a series of flashbacks to when they were a younger couple trying to make it in the world.

This film only has one nomination, best actress, and I can see how that would be. Glenn Close is great in this film and quite honestly is the only thing I didn’t hate about it. She brought the emotions that have been bottling up over the past 40 years to the screen and makes the audience really feel for her. I especially loved the scene with her and the writer (Christian Slater) on the plane ride back, still defending her husband through all means.

That being said, I think it was a good nomination for the film, but it just didn’t have the oomph to give it any more than an “okay” from me. The hour and 39 minutes was just too long. (2/5).