(1995)
2.5
Michael Costello
Director Tom Noonan's adaptation of his play Wifey is a fascinating and unsettling portrait of two troubled marriages. The setting is a dinner bringing together new age therapists Jack Tom Noonan and Rita Julie Hagerty and Jack's patient Cosmo Wallace Shawn and his wife Arlie Karen Young. As the evening progresses, and the foursome dispense with the pleasantries, it becomes apparent that beneath the new age trappings, Jack is a manipulative sadist who enjoys feasting on the pain of the others. Between Jack's frail, substance abusing wife, his rage-filled patient, and the man's exhibitionistic wife, he certainly has a wide territory to explore. This witty, oblique satire implies the vacuity of new age bromides, suggesting that the complexity of these people's lives and the problems of their marriages can hardly be resolved so simply. Noonan, whose looks have often landed him roles as a killer or madman, is eerily good as the brutal master of ceremonies, and Shawn's acute intelligence illuminates his troubled character. Julie Hagerty brings out the pain beneath the brittle characters she usually plays for laughs, and Karen Young is also effective.
awards for The Wife on AllMovie
The Wife (1995)
Sundance Film Festival
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Nominated |
In Competition
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1994 |
