The story is eventually revealed to be a tad far-fetched, but its events make it a page-turner, and Close is not its only first-rate performer.

| Nov 29, 2022

Her name is Joan and his name is Joe, suggesting that the boundaries between them are blurred. It is that blurring this movie explores, with a performance of mingled rage, guilt, passion, and integrity by the magnificent Glenn Close.

| Sep 30, 2021

The Wife is an insight into long relationships, the way men and women heal and hurt each other. There are moments here that all husbands and wives will recognize. But the biggest reason to see this film is to experience the power of Glenn Close.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 15, 2019

At least The Wife has Close in its favour, not to mention timeliness.

| Oct 4, 2018

This is a small, neat story, slipping in the fatal compromises the Castlemans have made along the way as sharp period snapshots, and its backward glances at the boys' club of American fiction are alternately sad and funny.

| Oct 2, 2018

Close plays Joan in a deliberately enigmatic fashion.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 1, 2018

Runge keeps things admirably unfussy, giving his actors theatrical space to work their magic - all long takes and carefully composed frames.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 1, 2018

If ever a film belonged to an actor... this one belongs to Close. Mesmeric is an adjective often misused as a synonym for superlatives because it sounds cool. Here it is the right word.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 28, 2018

Pryce is on fearless form, boldly inhabiting a character with a monstrous carapace and...soft, shriveled insides. While Close is ineffably good, playing the still-simmering centre of a cruel, capricious world.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 28, 2018

The glittering, frozen quality of [Close's] performance is as mesmeric as it is mysterious.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 27, 2018

Her performance is better than the film, but it's such a magnificent performance that it more than carries the day.

| Sep 27, 2018

Director Björn Runge's stark palate contrasts with the pleasingly juicy story, but it's Close's remarkable performance that makes this drama shine.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 27, 2018

An intelligent drama that treats its disempowered heroine with the respect she deserves.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 27, 2018

What secret grief is not being told here? Don't ask me to spill or spoil: it's pretty much all the film has.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 26, 2018

Close gives a performance that demands the Oscar voters consider her for a seventh time, and with Pryce matching her barb for barb, this is a heavyweight piece of theatre that grips whenever they're on screen.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 25, 2018

Watch Close's face in these early scenes; imagine what she's feeling because you will imagine something much different by the end.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 21, 2018

With Glenn Close in the lead role, it's... unexpectedly poignant and powerful.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 20, 2018

The Wife is that increasingly rare offering, a commercially viable film that also makes you rethink your assumptions about talent and who gets to wield it.

| Sep 10, 2018

Other than the performances, there is nothing here audiences haven't seen more times than they have their own feet.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 7, 2018

Close owns this movie, from beginning to end; it's a performance of such intelligence and subtlety that only when the movie is long over do you start wondering about whether the plot holds up.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 6, 2018