For decades, Glenn Close has turned in one acclaimed performance after another, but Oscar has continually eluded her. At last year’s Academy Awards, that nearly changed. Close narrowly lost the Best Actress statuette for her tour-de-force performance in The Wife. Although Close herself earned critical praise, the film itself fell beneath the radar, earning less than $10 million at the domestic box office. Today we take a closer look at what The Wife has to offer.

Angela Betancourt, host of 5 Things with Angie B., joins us to discuss not only Close’s magnetic turn in the Björn Runge-directed drama but also how it tackles the emotional complexity of a decades-long marriage. Listen in as we engage in a detailed breakdown of The Wife, its complicated family dynamic, the unsung supporting role (co-lead?) played by Jonathan Pryce and the implications of its divisive conclusion.

The Wife synopsis, courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics:

Directed by Berlin Silver Bear-winner Björn Runge, THE WIFE is adapted by Jane Anderson from the Meg Wolitzer novel of the same name.

After nearly forty years of marriage, JOAN and JOE CASTLEMAN (Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce) are complements: Where Joe is brash, Joan is shy. Where Joe is casual, Joan is elegant. Where Joe is vain, Joan is self-effacing. And where Joe enjoys his very public role as Great American Novelist, Joan pours her considerable intellect, grace, charm, and diplomacy into the private role of Great Man’s Wife, keeping the household running smoothly, the adult children in close contact, and Joe’s pills dispensed on schedule. At times, a restless discontentment can be glimpsed beneath Joan’s smoothly decorous surface, but her natural dignity and keen sense of humor carry her through the rough spots.

It’s 1992, and Joe is about to be awarded the Nobel Prize for his acclaimed and prolific body of work. Joe’s literary star has blazed since he and Joan first met in the late 1950s, when she was a demure Smith student and he, her (married) creative writing teacher. The Wife interweaves the midcentury story of the couple’s youthful passion and ambition with a portrait of a marriage, thirty-plus years later—a lifetime’s shared compromises, secrets, betrayals, and genuine, mutual love. From 1958 to 1992 to our present vantage point of 2018, we observe Joan and Joe Castleman in the context of their times, and ours.

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