Suzy Singh

Imagine being the invisible, awareness between a couple, watching quietly, the intense and distressing unfolding of their life. Imagine living the exquisite experience of an impassioned life, and the always lurking compromises that go into making one's world look picture perfect. Such is the poignant crafting of this deeply moving & rivetting film about a couple, Joan (played by the amazing Glenn Close) and Joe Castleman, her Novelist husband (played by Jonathan Pryce) who travel to Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize in literature. The film explores the complicated arrangement between a man hungering for success in his craft, and the sophisticated arrangement with his wife, who, besotted by him, chooses quiet easily to trade away the world, willing to remain unseen and unacknowledged, only to be loved and married to him. The stoic silences that punctuate the couple's relationship are peppered by familiar dialogues that every couple will resonate with deeply, giving the film a very human presence. Don't be surprised if you find yourself wondering if you just walked into a friend's family saga, that's how real it can sometimes get. Glenn Close, (whom I fondly remember as Cruela) is absolutely brilliant. Her piercing eyes speak louder than her silences, and her demeanor is elegant and controlled, except of course when she has had enough of her husband's incorrigible meanderings and misbehaviour, and she must allow her rage to be unleashed behind closed doors. Is marriage really worth it? Is it worth the sacrifices the wife must make to keep it together? That perhaps is the gruelling question that Joan struggles with so hard on this trip. Everytime she thinks that she can't take it any more, some strange twist of human emotion intercepts her interrogation, making her brush aside her suffering to once again become the good samaritan. What eventually happens? Do they resolve their differences? Does Joan find her voice or her freedom? What does she do in the end? Go watch the movie and remember to pinch yourself a couple of times through it, just so you remember, it's only just a film. #thewifereview #moviestowatch