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Here’s Your First Look at ‘The Wife’
Here’s Your First Look at ‘The Wife,’ The Glenn Close Movie Based on Meg Wolitzer’s Novel Close plays a woman whose literary ambitions have come second to her husband’s for 40 years
I f you’ve ever navigated publishing-world sexism, family resentment, the exquisite self-inflicted pain of being a writer, or the terrible bargains we strike to support the people we love, congratulations: you’re finally being played by Glenn Close in the movie of your life. Oh, sorry, it’s the movie The Wife, but still: from the exclusive preview below, it looks like Close’s character will strike close to the bone.
The Wife, based on the novel of the same name, focuses on Close’s Joan Castleman, who’s been letting her literary ambitions come second to her husband Joe’s (Jonathan Pryce) for 40 years. Now Joe is about to win a Nobel Prize, and Joan is reflecting on a life spent seeing her talents and dreams subsumed by her marriage, her domestic responsibilities, and the sexism of the publishing industry.
“Meg’s novel tells a story that is so subversive about what it means to be a female writer,” says Jane Anderson, who adapted the screenplay. “I was thrilled that she was willing to entrust me with her wonderful book, but when I first wrote the screen adaptation fifteen years ago, no male star wanted to be in a film called THE WIFE instead of THE HUSBAND. The culture in Hollywood has changed since then.” The culture in publishing has changed too, but not so much that The Wife doesn’t feel relevant. “The film is coming out at an unusual and highly charged moment, one in which we are squarely facing some of the issues between men and women that have been around forever,” says Wolitzer. “Joan’s rage feels particularly pointed and relevant right now.”
The Wife is in theaters August 17.
