Glenn Close to play The Wife in screen adaptation of Meg Wolitzer bestseller

Glenn Close has signed on to play the titular role in The Wife, the film adaptation of Meg Wolitzer's bestselling 2003 novel about the unraveling of a marriage during The couple's  
journey to the Nobel Award ceremony in Stockholm. 

The pub offers this:

Meg Wolitzer brings her characteristic wit and intelligence to a provocative story about the evolution of a marriage, the nature of partnership, the question of a male or female sensibility, and the place for an ambitious woman in a man’s world. 

 

The moment Joan Castleman decides to leave her husband, they are thirty-five thousand feet above the ocean on a flight to Helsinki. Joan’s husband, Joseph, is one of America’s preeminent novelists, about to receive a prestigious international award, and Joan, who has spent forty years subjugating her own literary talents to fan the flames of his career, has finally decided to stop. From this gripping opening, Meg Wolitzer flashes back to 1950s Smith College and Greenwich Village and follows the course of the marriage that has brought the couple to this breaking point—one that results in a shocking revelation. 

With her skillful storytelling and pitch-perfect observations, Wolitzer has crafted a wise and candid look at the choices all men and women make—in marriage, work, and life.

I haven't read this one; in fact I've never read Wolitzer but this sounds good to me. I've just started J.K. Rowling's A Casual Vacancy and I'm enjoying being in the adult vs YA world for a change, The Wife promises more of the same. These mature female characters - in years anyway - speak to issues that resonate with older and long married folks like me. It's exciting to read about young people falling in love and finding themselves but it's good to see oneself from time to time too. 

Wolitzer fans should appreciate Runge's understanding of and passion for the material. 

“The first time I read ‘The Wife' I was instantly inspired by the story of love, creativity and a secret larger than life in itself that the main characters, Joan and Joe, are carrying. After meeting the amazing Glenn Close, I was convinced that directing this film would be a creatively wonderful and challenging experience,” said Runge.

From the sound of it, Glenn Close will make a fantastic Joan, the woman at the breaking point. She's mad as hell and she's just not gonna take it anymore. The film is being directed by the Swedish filmmaker Bjorn Runge (Daybreak) from a script by Jane Anderson who scripted the upcoming adaptation of the bestselling novel Olive Kitteridge for HBO. The four-part miniseries stars Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins and Bill Murray and airs this September. They're currently hunting up the male lead for a planned winter/spring 2015 start, shooting primarily in Stockholm. The Wrap reports they'll be recording in both English and Swedish.