1/29/19 - The Wife (2018) - 4+-/10

In general, I didn’t super care for this film. Sure, much of the subtext and drama was underlying, as if a Graboid flowing under dirt, preparing your gruesome death, but like Tremors without the worms or the Bacon/Ward combo, most of what we get is a dry dusty barren wasteland of “meh”.

Bland and familiar. There was no challenge, no wrestling with truth or pathos, nothing extraordinary. Sure, Close is good, but her rote stoicism is the canvas we read what we want to onto. She passions through on certain occasions, unlike a Goslingbot, and perhaps it is her air of strength that makes the film tick. But I am still stuck questioning a majority of the film where that performance is hard and cold as ice

I couldn’t stand these generic “characters in the stories are versions of what is going on i the movie”. Too simplistic and expected. Would a step removed allusions have been that bad? Would the audience be unable to “get it”? I think not. Maybe the poetry of the snow and tears and Joyce was to be magical; I rolled my eyes.

The Wife was one good performance (mostly...probably) in a workmanlike “okay” slog. A film that I can see a group of grandmothers enjoying at their movie club, but made no impact on me.