Let me
get this out of the way immediately: I loved this movie. I got it as a DVD rental from Netflix, and I
thought the story was just extraordinary.
I was drawn in the whole time, the performances are wonderful (Glenn
Close, obviously, but everyone else is also great,) and I’m still turning it
over in my head.
For
nearly 40 years, Joan has been “the woman behind the man,” the wife of celebrated
literary genius Joe. When Joe wins the Nobel
Prize for literature, he and Joan (and their adult son David) fly to Stockholm
together for the ceremony, and over the course of several days – filled with
fawning functions, Joe’s charm-the-room anecdoctes, and Joan being the wife on
Joe’s arm to be trotted out for introductions – the fundamental condition of
their relationship and Joe’s career comes to a boiling point.
Really
fascinating. I’ve never read the book
this film is based on, never even heard of it before seeing this movie, but now
I really want to read it. The way the
lives of the characters are revealed gradually, between the present-day scenes
and a series of flashbacks from early in Joe and Joan’s relationship, is done
so deftly. There’s a whole ecosystem of
complicated emotion tangled up within this family, and I love digging through
it. The story takes us in interesting
directions, some of which I didn’t see coming.
As I was
watching Close’s excellent performance as Joan in this movie, a certain phrase
came to mind, “life of quiet desperation,” and as I thought it, it occurred to
me that the vast majority of fictional characters who make me think of this
phrase are female. Interesting, when the
full quote from Henry David Thoreau refers to “the mass of men.” But there’s something in that phrase that
resonates so strongly in me with a number of female characters, the ones who’ve
always occupied the places they’re “supposed to,” following the rules but
finding that it brings them no contentment or fulfillment, no security, no promised
reward for the dutiful wife and devoted mother.
Joan fits
into this space for me, but in a way that I don’t often see. The restlessness is there, and the
discontentment. You see it in the way
Joan makes eye contact with another “wife” in the room as a group of Nobel
winners are rubbing elbows together, in her posture every time Joe beckons her
from across the room to be presented to another Someone Important. But she’s at the same time so composed, so
pragmatic, so without rancor. Multiple
times during the film, someone offers her the bait and she doesn’t take
it. She’s like a Cheshire cat of
repressed female rage, smiling and demurring whenever anyone tries to get her
to acknowledge the bullshit that’s clearly all around her, that she herself fully
recognizes (give her a little credit, thank you very much) but refuses to give
voice to. Again, my go-to word is
“fascinating.”
Undoubtedly,
it’s 100% Close’s show, and I see why she’s the one who’s pulled ahead in the
Lead Actress race (side note: while I’m
guessing she’s got the award in the bag at this point, this is another film
where I wish it was even more recognized than that very well-deserved
nomination.) But as I said, the other
actors do fine work as well. Jonathan
Pryce is pitch-perfect as Joe, by which I mean infuriating in such an insidious
way, and Christian Slater is just the right amount of thirsty as a would-be
biographer sniffing around the family. Downton Abbey’s Elizabeth McGovern does
a nice job in a small role, and special shoutout to Annie Starke (a new face
for me) and Harry Lloyd (Son of Mine or Herbert Pocket, take your pick) as the
younger versions of Joan and Joe. The
flashbacks are so excellently used and tell so
much about these two and what their relationship is.
Warnings
Language,
brief sexual content, drinking/smoking, and brief drug references.
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