The Wife is a 1995 film written and directed by Tom Noonan, based on his play Wifey. The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, after Noonan had won the Grand Prize the previous year with What Happened Was.[1]
Plot
Jack and his wife Rita, both professional therapists, live and work in virtual isolation in a remote Vermontcottage. One night, one of Jack's patients, Cosmo, unexpectedly turns up with young wife Arlie in tow. And the more the couples talk and drink, the more tension builds over what personal issues are being shared in analysis, as well as the private troubles of the therapists themselves.
The Wife begins promisingly, but once Mr. Noonan's screenplay lurches into comic caricature, the movie loses its psychological authority... You are more inclined to laugh derisively at the characters than to sympathize with them... The detailed ensemble acting goes a long way toward covering up some of the screenplay's holes.[2]
References
^New York Magazine What Happened Next Was June 19, 1995 p88
