“Don’t paint me as the victim. I’m much more interesting than that,” says Glenn Close in a new trailer for “The Wife.” An adaptation of Meg Wolitzer’s 2003 novel of the same name, the drama sees the six-time Oscar nominee playing Joan Castleman, a woman best known as the wife of an incredibly successful writer. Joan has dedicated decades of her life to nurturing her husband’s (Jonathan Pryce, “Game of Thrones”) career, but on the eve of his receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature, she decides that she’s had enough of his egotism and infidelities.
Joan’s “coup de grace is to confront the biggest sacrifice of her life and secret of his career,” the film’s official synopsis hints.
The trailer shows glimpses into Joan and her husband’s complicated history. Joan herself was a talented writer in her college days — and her future husband was her professor. Rather than encouraging her to pursue a writing career of her own, he seems to devalue her work.
“Don’t ever think that you can get their approval,” Joan is told by a female professor as the two watch a group of men sharing laughs and looking very much like a boys’ club. “[They’re] the ones who decide who gets to be taken seriously.”
Close received Oscar nods for her performances in “Albert Nobbs,” “Dangerous Liaisons,” “Fatal Attraction,” “The Natural,” “The Big Chill,” and “The World According to Garp.” Her recent credits include zombie story “The Girl with All the Gifts” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
Written by Jane Anderson (“Olive Kitteridge”) and directed by Björn Runge (“Daybreak”), “The Wife” hits theaters August 3. The film made its world premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival to strong reviews, with Close’s performance in particular earning raves.
