The Wife is a 2017 drama film directed by Björn L. Runge and written by Jane Anderson, based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Meg Wolitzer.

On the night of the Nobel ceremony, David confronts his parents after being told by Nathaniel that Joan is the real writer in the family.

[6] On January 30, 2015, Frances McDormand, Logan Lerman, Brit Marling, Jonathan Pryce, and Christian Slater were announced as having also been cast.

[7] On October 19, 2016, Pryce and Slater's involvement was confirmed, and Elizabeth McGovern, Max Irons, and Close's daughter Annie Starke joined the cast, playing the roles originally set with McDormand, Lerman, and Marling, respectively; Harry Lloyd was also added.

The website's critical consensus reads, "The Wife relies on the strength of Glenn Close's performance to drive home the power of its story—and she proves thoroughly, grippingly up to the task.

"[13] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

[14] Peter Travers gave the film four out of five stars in Rolling Stone, calling Close's acting a "tour-de-force", and saying she "takes it to the next level with a powerfully implosive performance that doubles as an accumulation of details that define a marriage.

She never telegraphs Joan's feelings, letting them unravel slowly as we watch her attend parties as a buildup to the big night.

"[15] The chief film critic for The Observer Mark Kermode described the movie as a "Stockholm syndrome with a twist",[16] while Glenn Close, interviewed by Robbie Collin for The Daily Telegraph, described it as "part-period piece, part-love story, part-Bergmanesque drama—so much so the latter that it could have been called Scenes from a Marriage.

"[17] Citing the screening coordinator Peggy Siegal, Bill McCuddy of the Gold Derby called The Wife "the perfect '#MeToo' film" and defined it as Oscar bait.

"[19] Writing for the Chicago Reader, Ben Sachs wrote: "Because the performances are so calculated, the emotional outbursts on which the story hinges fail to make a dramatic impact.