The Wife Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Wife Blu-ray Movie Review

Writer's Ruse.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 30, 2019

Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce dynamically portray a husband-and-wife couple hiding a life- and literature landscape-changing secret in The Wife, Swedish Director Björn Runge's English-language film based on the novel of the same name by Meg Wolitzer. The picture is smartly and efficiently translated from the page to screen, building its simple story through gradually revealed complications leading towards a shocking reveal that rearranges both characters and the entirety of the film's narrative foundations and evolving dynamics. Mostly told in the present but flashing backwards to key moments in the couple's younger days in the decades prior, the elegantly assembled and precisely performed picture offers revealing insights into marriage, family, personal success, and perception.

Acclaimed Novelist Joseph Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) has seen his career take him to practically unprecedented heights of fame and fortune, and the crowning achievement of his life's work is the news that he's to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He and his longtime wife Joan (Glenn Close) celebrate the news with glee. Along with their son David (Max Irons), himself an aspiring writer who, according to his father, is "still finding his voice," the family travels to Sweden to take receipt of the award. Joseph, a philanderer, has his eye on the photographer assigned to him, a young woman named Elaine (Elizabeth McGovern). Would-be Castleman biographer Nathaniel Bone (Christian Slater) uninvitedly accompanies the couple to Sweden, feeding morsels of information to both David and Joan that he may be privy to a secret that could destroy Joseph's career.

If a lie is spoken frequently enough, if it comes off the tongue with a truthful air, if it becomes ingrained in the mind and conscience as part of one's very essence, does it eventually become truth? Or does it settle in an unsettling way, riding the highs it's engendered but stirring a dormant, but not dead, morality within when it comes under attack? The Wife challenges audiences, and its characters, to study how a life of lies impacts one couple's relationship at the pinnacle of success, where a lie becomes codified in history rather than merely remain a shrouded secret on the path to success. The film is primarily concerned with how the lie unsettles the soul. The Wife is difficult to discuss without exposing its plot- and character-altering secret, but its untimely, or perhaps perfectly timed, reveal rewrites, so to speak, the entire dynamic between Close's Joan and Pryce's Jospeh. The picture's celebratory point of entry is short-lived, and through various flashbacks and critical scenes in the present, Joan's inner revolt begins to take shape as her husband relishes his time in the spotlight.

The film explores the story smartly. Not a Thriller focused on Slater's Nathaniel Bone's fact-finding missions but rather an intimate character portrait where the hint that the truth might be percolating beyond the boundaries of Joan's and Joseph's souls is but one of several sparks that ignite the fire that leads to an explosion of truth that is not revealed to set the record straight but rather to purify a soul. The dynamic comes not from Joseph and Joan confessing to the world but rather to one another. That is the story's most provocative draw, that a secret is exposed not in a grand, revelatory way but rather released in a way that serves as an outlet for decades of pent-up frustration, hidden and accepted for worldly success at the cost of Joan's very essence. Close is wonderful in the lead, nursing and nurturing a very deep-seeded resentment which is gradually released through sometimes innocent and seemingly unrelated methods but eventually becoming ever more clear that her pains run well beyond her husband's infidelities. Pryce, on the other hand, seems none-too-bothered by the same secret eating away at his wife. He's awash in the award, certainly not blinded by the unseen reality but more than happy to keep it buried for his sake. Slater is terrific as the would-be biographer whose nosy interjections ultimately prove to be one of the catalysts to breaking the illusion.

The Wife Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The digitally photographed The Wife arrives on Blu-ray with a very capable and usually pleasing 1080p transfer. The image's primary drawback is noise, which is generally handled with care and is not particularly intrusive, but it does elevate severely in a few scenes, such as that immediately before the title card when Joan and Jonathan are celebrating the announcement by bouncing on the bed. Fortunately most of the more dramatic scenes (read: much of the film) find noise in a more proportional balance, but do expect to see it in some quantity here and there. The image is otherwise very pleasing, producing core textural delights such as wrinkles, freckles, and facial hair with the sort of intimacy one would expect of a good Blu-ray presentation. Clothing lines are sharp, critical considering that so much of the movie sees the characters in more refined, high end attire. The generally regal and finely appointed environments are also beneficiaries of the resolution and corner-to-corner clarity the Blu-ray provides. Colors are stable and satisfying, nicely pronounced with even contrast to the delight of the variously colored clothes and appointments, flesh tones, and nighttime black levels. This is a very good, well-rounded transfer from Sony.

The Wife Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Wife features a front-heavy DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Truth be told, a 3.0 configuration probably wouldn't have resulted in a significantly different track beyond losing some very subtle environmental supports. Most of the time, the surrounds seem practically disengaged. A fairly large gathering in the film's first minutes when Joan and Jonathan are celebrating the prize features crowd din that stays almost exclusively across the front. Another gathering in chapter five is likewise well defined, clear, and engaging across the front but lacks surround immersion. Reverb and applause later in the film at the awards banquet also doesn't stretch all that far into the rears. A few more prominent effects find slightly more engagement, including pouring rain during the first flashback sequence, but for the most part the track is more than content to allow the front left, center, and right speakers do all the heavy lifting, basically giving the rears the movie off. Musical clarity and front positioning are fine, and dialogue, which is the movie's sonic focus, presents without flaw from a natural front-center position.

The Wife Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Wife contains several extras. No DVD or digital copies are included. The release ships with a non-embossed slipcover.

• Keeping Secrets: Glenn Close on The Wife (1080p, 6:37): Close discusses meeting Author Meg Wolitzer and praises her depiction of female characters. She also speaks on key moments from the film, character details, gender roles and equality, and more.
• In Conversation with the Cast of The Wife (1080p, 38:12): Moderator Janelle Riley discusses the film with Director Björn Runge and Actors Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, Christian Slater, and Annie Starke.
• Q&A with Glenn Close & Author Meg Wolitzer (1080p, 16:19): The author and the actress sit down to discuss the film following a screening.
• The Wife Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:26).
• Previews (1080p): Additional Sony titles.

The Wife Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Wife is a film that may prove more rewarding on a second watch, knowing the truth and watching the performances for signs of it, hints that reveal the secret, hints that begin as micro fractures in the celebratory glow but eventually become deeply dividing fissures that cannot be resealed. The film offers a rewarding study of success and partnership with not-so-subtle themes that bend towards ideas on gender equality both in the world and within a marriage. The picture is smartly performed; Close was recently nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her work in the film. Sony's Blu-ray is of a good quality, featuring capable video and audio. A few extras are included. Highly recommended.