The Wife

"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."

"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."

"[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."

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

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

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

"A small film but one of considerable power."