The Wife with Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce will be released in August. The Children Act, also in theaters in August, stars Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci in a legal drama. I’m combining these two teasers into a single post because of the fact that they are both movies for grown ups and feature outstanding women 40+ in the lead.
The Wife
The Guardian called Glenn Close’s performance in The Wife “unreadably brilliant.”
Here’s the synopsis of The Wife:
Joan Castleman (Glenn Close) is a highly intelligent and still-striking beauty – the perfect devoted wife. Forty years spent sacrificing her own talent, dreams and ambitions to fan the flames of her charismatic husband Joe (Jonathan Pryce) and his skyrocketing literary career. Ignoring his infidelities and excuses because of his “art” with grace and humor. Their fateful pact has built a marriage upon uneven compromises and Joan’s reached her breaking point. On the eve of Joe’s Nobel Prize for Literature, the crown jewel in a spectacular body of work, Joan’s coup de grace is to confront the biggest sacrifice of her life and secret of his career. THE WIFE is a poignant, funny and emotional journey; a celebration of womanhood, self-discovery and liberation.
Emphasis on the liberation, I hope. Our heroine comes from a marriage begun in the 1960s under a very different set of rules. Sexist rules.
The film is based on a novel by Meg Wolitzer, written for the screen by Jane Anderson.
The Children Act
In The Children Act, Emma Thompson plays a judge, Fiona Maye. She’s completely focused on the law, to the detriment of her marriage. Stanley Tucci plays her husband. Fiona gets a case about a teenage boy (Fionn Whitehead) who will die without a blood transfusion. His parents have refused the treatment for religious reasons.
The Children Act is based on a book by Ian McEwan, which I read about a month ago. At the time I didn’t realize it was being adapted for a movie. Ian McEwan wrote the screenplay as well. Like other Ian McEwan stories, this one is about moral decisions. I’m thrilled to see that Emma Thompson will be playing Fiona. She was not a likeable character in the book; her moral choices could be debated at length.
Summer will have its share of high powered action movies. I urge you to consider watching these two quiet dramas about life choices that have far reaching effects.