The Wife (2017)

It's Oscar night tomorrow —actually, it's early Monday morning here but nevermind— and since I'm going to lose one night of sleep and sit through the hostless ceremony that is going to award Bohemian Rhapsody and Roma, I figured I should also watch all the movies that split under the radar that somehow made it to the Oscars. The Wife is one of those movies as Glenn Close is up for Best Actress. 

The story follows a charismatic writer, Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce), and his devoted wife, Joan (Glenn Close). When Joe is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his acclaimed body of work and they travel to Stockholm to attend the ceremony, Joan begins to question her life choices and her forty-year marriage built upon uneven compromises and sacrifices.

The biggest issue with The Wife is the story. Simple and plot-heavy at the same time, it lacks credibility, it's predictable, it doesn't always make sense, it has too many pointless subplots and a twist that couldn't have impressed me any less —women writers always had a public even in earlier years (Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Agatha Christie, to name a few), therefore Joan giving up her writing in the 1950s when she had no chance as a woman is an absolute bullshit. Sure, she probably wouldn't have had the same success as her husband, nor would it have been as easy to get published, but it sure wasn't impossible if she was as talented as she turns out to be. As a result, the story isn't never compelling —I found it to be quite boring, to be honest.

As a character study, The Wife works a bit better. Joan is the perfect example of the woman who sacrifices her life and career for the man she loves, a woman who has lived her entire life in the shadow of her successful husband. All of a sudden, she reaches her breaking point and she snaps. She is not sympathetic nor likeable but Glenn Close and her strong, compelling but not Oscar-worthy performance make you feel for her. Annie Starke —Close's real life daughter— gives an equally compelling performance as the younger version of Joan. Joe is a self-absorbed, narcissistic man addicted to the spotlight, a spotlight he does not deserve. A man who criticizes everyone in his life, from his wife to his "looking for father's approval" son, and Jonathan Pryce gives a solid performance. Christian Slater is completely wasted in the role of a Nathaniel Bone, the journalist who makes Joan begin to question her life choices, as he's nothing but a plot device.

Sony Pictures Classics

As for the direction, I'm pretty sure if someone more skilled had the job, The Wife would have been a more successful and compelling drama. The thing is that Björn Runge keeps playing the twist as if it was some big reveal or something, which it isn't as it's very clear right from the start, so the tension he tries to build never lifts off. There are also some frustrating, annoying scenes that are dragged way too long and add nothing to the film.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)

Terry Gilliam first read Don Quixote in 1989 and decided to turn it into a movie right away. It's only in 2000 that he had his first shot at making the film, but everything went wrong and the making of the movie became a documentary about the failure at making the movie, Lost in La Mancha. Last May, after 18 years the first attempt, and nearly 30 years after it was originally conceived, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote finally saw the light at Cannes.

The story follows Toby Grisoni (Adam Driver), a cynical advertising director who is struggling with the production of a commercial featuring Don Quixote. One night, he stumbles upon an old DVD of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, an amateur film that Toby made as a student a decade earlier. He then discovers that the village where he made the film is just a short drive away and heads over there only to discover that the shoemaker (Jonathan Pryce) he cast in the leading role now believes he is the real Don Quixote and that Toby is Sancho Panza. Toby is soon pulled into the world of Don Quixote and embarks on a series of adventures that mixes dreams and reality.

Gilliam's film has a wonderful beginning, as the story immediately captures your attention and pulls you in the world that mixes fantasy, dreams and reality Gilliam has created. Unfortunately, as it unfolds, the story gets more and more confusing, chaotic, and it's difficult to understand what the hell is going on; there are too many subplots that intertwine in a forced manner which only makes the story more confusing, furthermore there are dismissed pretty soon, and it feels like Gilliam completely forgot about writing them in the first place. The ending is just as confusing —I watched the entire movie twice and I'm still not sure what I saw— and, as the ending credits roll, you are left with nothing but a sour taste in your mouth.

In addition to the messy plot, the script also features a lot of unnecessary, long and absurd dialogues and characters that keep transforming as the film moves forward.

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The acting, on the other hand, is more than solid, which is as a huge surprise considering how poor the screenplay is. Adam Driver gives yet another charismatic performance as Toby, the cynical, arrogant American filmmaker; his Toby is a narcissist and skeptical but at the same time very likeable and sympathetic, and his attempts at humour always pay off. Jonathan Pryce does a wonderful job as the man who seemingly lost his mind as he believes to be the real Don Quixote. Joanna Ribeira gives an interesting performance as Angelica, a young woman whose life was ruined by being cast as a teenager in Toby's old film.

In addition, the settings Gilliam choose to shot the film are gorgeous, the production design and costumes are wonderful, the cinematography by Nicola Pecorini is great, and the score fits the film very well.

Ultimately though, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is a huge disappointment. The performances are charming and the visuals are good but the script is all over the place, it's not even clear what genre the film is supposed to be —one moment it feels like it's supposed to be a serious movie, the next one as if it's a parody movie.