“The Wife”

Please don't paint me as the victim. I'm much more interesting than that.

This is how Joan (starred by Glenn Close) responds to the thirsty journalist. The latter is desperate to draft a biography for Joe, Joan’s husband -- a recently anointed Nobel laureate in literature. Joan also repeatedly reminds Joe not to acknowledge her in his award testimony.

Joan: Please don’t thank me, Joe. I don’t want to be thought as a long-suffering wife.

Joe: If I don’t, I will be seen as a narcissistic prick.

Joan (smile): But you are.

As Joe unreservedly receives attention and praises from the public and the Nobel committee, Joan takes care of his coat, his diet, and his sexual desire.

Yet this film is more than a good wife who stands behind his self-absorbed husband. The truth is, Joan is the ghost writer of all Joe’s novels, whereas she is deprived of any credit. Joan, the silent genius, is usually introduced by Joe as someone “who doesn’t write, thank god.”

The dynamics between the couple is further unraveled. We see Joe’s endless attempts to seduce young females who are drawn to his alleged talent and unparalleled humaneness in literature. In fact, Joan is at one point the student of Joe, when the latter is teaching in the university with a wife and a daughter. As a result, Joe is kicked out by the university and divorced by his ex-wife.

After the affair, Joe is dismissed to teach in a smaller university. Joe constantly suffers writer blocks. If Joan tries to tell the truth, Joe would threaten to leave her. What upsets Joe more is, Joan has the talent that he craves for. Joan has the “golden touch.”

Joan doesn’t simply want to make Joe happy. She understands, or at least has familiarized herself with, the reality of female writers.

Alumna writer: The public can’t stomach bold prose from a woman. You are talented, I hear.

Joan: Oh, thank you. I love to write. It’s my life.

Alumna writer: Don’t do it.

Joan: Excuse me?

Alumna writer: You wanna know where your books will end up? Right there. On the alumni shelf (as She reaches to her book on the shelf). Go ahead, open it (as she gives the book to Joan). You hear that, that’s the sound of a book that’s never been opened (as Joan opens the book). Don’t ever think that you can get their attention.

Joan: Whose?

Alumna writer: The men. Who write the reviews. Who run the publishing houses. Who edit the magazines. The ones who decide who gets to be taken seriously, who gets to be put up on a pedestal for the rest of their lives.

Joan: A writer has to write.

Alumna writer: A writer has to be read, honey.