Based on the book of the same name by J.D. Vance; Hillbilly Elegy is a new drama starring Amy Adams, Haley Bennett, Gabriel Basso and Glenn Close.
Directed by Ron Howard; it’s the story of a Yale law student (Brasso) who’s drawn back to his hometown where he grapples with family history, Appalachian values and the American dream.
Close and Adams are really all the reasons I needed before saying yes to watching this. It also looks like Adams will finally win an Academy Award because this here looks like a truly brilliant performance.
Freida Pinto, Sunny Mabrey, Bo Hopkins, Dylan Gage, David Atkinson, Marcella Lentz-Pope, Stephen Kunken, Chase Anderson, William Mark McCullough, Jason Davis and Tierney Smith also star.
Imagine being way past middle age and finding yourself ill at ease with your life choices. This is the situation Joan Castleman (Glenn Close) finds herself in as she travels to Stockholm with her husband, a man who’s due to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Featuring good performances by all involved, especially Close, I enjoyed this story and the way it handles regret. I particularly like how expertly Close portrays the complicated emotional journey of a woman in a specific predicament that is the kind of situation most modern independent women should hopefully no longer find themselves in.
I’m quite certain that my favourite movie about regret will probably always be Magnolia (1999). Yet, The Wife too is memorable in the way it handles the subject. I felt bad for Joan, not so much because of the life she chose but because she let what seemed like other people’s negative experiences change the direction of her entire life.
Another way to look at Joan’s story is to conclude that she fell in love, and that truth took priority over all else – including her own morality and the kind of treatment and respect a person really ought to demand in every situation.
More than anything, for me, The Wife is a reminder to think, think and think again before you sacrifice a key part of yourself for another – especially in the name of love. The Wife is also just a well-acted movie you should see if the themes intrigue you enough.
Lastly, fun fact! The actress who plays young Joan is actually Glenn Close’s real-life daughter, Annie Starke.
The Wife is a Björn Runge directed drama about a woman who questions her life choices as she travels to Stockholm with her husband, where he’s due to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Glenn Close, Christian Slater, Max Irons, Jonathan Pryce and Elizabeth McGovern star.
What an interesting story, and such a hefty sacrifice. I can’t wait to see more of the truth that Close brings to her role. My heart broke just looking at her face in this trailer.
Harry Lloyd, Alix Wilton Regan and Carolin Stoltz also star.
The Wilde Wedding, the Damian Harris-written/directed movie about a retired actress who remarries for the fourth time, had me feeling a tad disinterested immediately. Reason being, I found that I didn’t connect with the narrator at the beginning. I also felt there were too many characters, none of whom proved particularly interesting.
For me, this film just plodded along, and I continued watching in hopes that things would improve. Especially considering the talented main cast – John Malkovich, Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close.
I’m glad to say that things did get interesting and more dramatic somewhere past the halfway point. And I certainly didn’t anticipate the way it ended. However, is it all enough for The Wilde Wedding to be a movie worth recommending? Not really. In my humble opinion, It’s Complicated (2009) is more fun.
The thing that stood out most for me overall about this film actually has nothing to do with the story, but rather the truth about one of the actors. I’m speaking of Australian actor Yael Stone, a.k.a. Lorna Morello from Orange Is The New Black. The lady is a wonderful performer, especially in Orange Is The New Black, and she’s clearly gifted with accents, for, in this movie, her character is very convincingly British.
In new comedy Father Figures, Owen Wilson and Ed Helms play fraternal twin brothers who just found out that their father is in fact very much alive, contrary to what their mother (Glenn Close) had told them their whole life.
Directed by Lawrence Sher, the brothers set off on a road trip to find their dad.
I think there’s some hope that this will be a movie I can watch and enjoy. I certainly want it to be, especially since the concept isn’t particularly ridiculous.
J.K. Simmons, Kat Williams, Christopher Walken and Ving Rhames also star.
