Wednesday, 08 November 2023 10:31

Wife and Her Househusband, The

wife house

THE WIFE AND HER HOUSE HUSBAND

 

UK, 2023, 86 minutes, Colour.

Laura Bayston, Laurence Spellman.

Directed by Marcus Markou.

 

Marriage breakup and divorce proceedings have been significant for a great number of films. Ingmar Bergman made the telling Scenes from a Marriage (and there was the remake with Jessica Chastain and). There was also the contrasting Divorce His, Divorce Hers.

This time it is a very brief film, mainly a two hander, the wife Laura Based on, the husband Laurence Spellman, along marriage, some of the details gradually revealed as the couple have several meetings, opening with a fiery exchange, especially on his angry part, in the office of a lawyer, then a meeting in Battersea Park, an encounter on the street, a visit to a social club, masked, of which the wife is a member.

All the principal focus of the screenplay is on the wife, there is a continual challenge throughout the film of how much we identify with the wife, the more we learn of her experiences, how much we identify with the husband and what he has been through. Key to the breakdown is the experience of the death of a child 10 years earlier. Which makes the encounters, angry, hostile, sometimes affectionate, all the more complex.

At the core of the drama and its meeting is a letter that they wrote at the time of their marriage, the wife finding it, neither of them remember writing it, but now reading it, they’re specifying how they would handle any prospect of the marriage breaking down, of what they would need to do.

As the drama progresses, and the letter becomes more potent in their reactions to each other, there is a kind of mellowing, expressions of affection, the rousing of sexual attraction, an encounter, unexpected, in the park with a woman that the husband has been seeing and his having to go off to appease her.

And, as with so many films, no need solution, but, given our identifying/not with each of the characters, it is over to us to speculate, to keep wondering about the initial letter and the long-term effect of their reading it again, reconciliation or not.

  1. The title? The focus on the wife, and the relationship with the husband and his status?
  2. The British drama, the London settings, interiors, the bridge, restaurants, the club…? The musical score?
  3. The emphasis on dialogue, cinematic equivalent of theatre but opened out in outdoor sequences?
  4. The structure of the film, its brevity, the chapters, each character in the chapters, the cumulative effect?
  5. The initial impact, the meeting with the lawyer, Matthew and his shouting, strident, Cassie and her reactions, angry responses? The situation of the divorce? The children? Other relationships? The later revelation of the death of the child, the 10 years, the effect on each of them, Cassie disturbed and seeking other relationships? Matthew and the children, relationships? Conditions of the divorce, custody, time with the children? The lawyer and his presence, expensive, but not always paying attention?
  6. The meeting in Battersea Gardens, the setting, the discussions, the modification of moods, Matthew more amenable, Cassie more amenable? Matthew leaving, Cassie alone, the phone and the texting?
  7. The importance of the letter, written before their marriage, in the event of’s separation and divorce, how they would handle the situation? Neither of them remember in the writing of it? But its significance? They’re reflecting on it? And the effect of the reflections on each of them?
  8. The delivery of the documents, forgetting them? Further meetings?
  9. The club, Cassie’s membership, the clientele, the masks, Mathieu and his arriving, the encounter with Cassie, the journey to the bathroom, the sexual impulses? The consequences?
  10. The letter and its injunction to part with love, not bitterness, and what should be done to achieve this? The effect on the present, each following through?
  11. The suddenness of the AA meeting, Cassie and her presence, the encounter with Sean, the alcoholic and his influence?
  12. The mellowing between the two, the effect of having written the letter, finding it, pondering it, acting on it, what possibilities for the future?