“The Nobel Laureate’s Wife”
Well done character study with a brilliant Glenn Close
Good face for the bad game: Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce play the Castleman couple in “The Nobel Laureate’s Wife”.
© imago images / Prod.DB
The first shows the film highlight “The Nobel Laureate’s Wife” on July 13th. In it, Glenn Close plays the brilliant wife of a self-centered writer who threatens to lose control after years in his shadow.
In “The Nobel Laureate’s Wife” Glenn Close (74, “101 Dalmatians”) plays the extraordinarily talented wife of a narcissistic writer who is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature at an advanced age. In the shadow of the supposed genius, she suffers silently and gracefully until she almost loses control. Das Erste will show the award-winning film highlight on July 13th at 10:50 pm as part of its “Sommerkino im Erste” series. Switching on late is worth it!
The Castleman couple: a supposed genius and a suppressed talent
Based on the novel “The Wife” by US author Meg Wolitzer (62), “The Nobel Laureate’s Wife” tells the story of Joan Castleman (Glenn Close), the wife of the writer Joseph Castleman (Jonathan Pryce, 74), known as Joe. An aspiring writer herself at a young age, she later said goodbye to the dream of building her own career because of doubts that her stories would ever find their way to the public. Instead, she began ghostwriting the work of her husband – her former mentor at university. When Castleman was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature at an advanced age, he and his wife and son David (Max Irons, 35) set off for the award ceremony in Stockholm, where the supposed genius of the writer is celebrated by everyone. Only Nathaniel Bone (Christian Slater, 51), who is commissioned to write a biography about the Nobel Prize winner, seems to know the whole truth, including Joe’s years of infidelity – and wants to bring it to light.
Leading actress Glenn Close, who according to the well-known Critic Peter Bradshaw (59) from the British “The Guardian” in the drama of the Swedish director Björn Runge (60) delivers the best performance of her career, was honored with an Oscar nomination for her performance in 2019. At that time she had to admit defeat to the British Olivia Colman (47), who was honored for “The Favorite – Intrigues and Insanity” (2018). At the Golden Globes in the same year, however, the American Close made the race and won the trophy for the third time.
Glenn Close’s silent grief leaves the audience almost in despair – until it explodes
Glenn Close, from the US state of Connecticut, has been considered one of the best actresses in Hollywood for many years and has so far received a total of eight Oscar nominations – although she always went empty-handed, most recently in 2021 for “Hillbilly Elegy” (2020). It is undoubtedly the main reason why “The Nobel Laureate’s Wife” has become an absolutely remarkable and award-winning character study, although you share with the great Jonathan Pryce (“The Two Popes”) and Christian Slater (” The Name of the Rose “) two brilliant colleagues were put to one side.
Close plays her role as the composed wife who accepts her place with dignity until she almost seems to lose control, with a calm that almost leaves the viewer in despair – he knows about the pain that Joan Castleman has suffered for years due to the lack of it Has to endure recognition and her husband’s antics in silence. Only during the award of the Nobel Prize, at which her husband publicly thanks her, does she seem on the verge of losing control. Close even gives the impression that she’s almost sick. Then Joan goes through a real life crisis, the emotions pent up for years overwhelm her like a sudden hailstorm – and then it gets ugly between the castlemans, even if their love for one another is always noticeable.
“The Nobel Laureate’s Wife” is thought-provoking
The viewer has to define for himself what kind of love this is exactly, which is one of the reasons why the drama stays in the memory for a long time. The portrayal of the different character traits of Joan and Joe Castleman is thought-provoking: the question of why the talented writer has endured so many years with a husband who apparently takes advantage of her and cheats on her. Or about whether Joan alone is the victim of this story – and not Joe too suffered for years. Because his obvious literary inadequacy probably hurts him the most, despite the academic degrees he has obtained. Is that why he searches so desperately and non-stop for recognition – and that also in strange beds? And is that why it is so difficult for him to express the slightest bit of praise to his own son, who is following in his footsteps?