Road to Oscars 2019: Glenn Close is likely to win Best Actress award for her stellar act in The Wife

There are five Academy Award contenders in the Best Actress category for this year’s Oscars, but out of those five ladies, only Glenn Close has been nominated seven times for an Oscar and never managed to take the coveted statuette home. And it looks like her time has finally come with The Wife, wherein she delivers a standout performance.

In the Björn Runge directorial, Glenn Close simmers, seethes and shines. The wife who could never become anything else but the shadow of her Noble-prize winning husband. The wife who had all it takes and more to make it big, chose family, like most women do. Out of her own volition, under the soft pressure of society, what matters is what she did. She let it all go away and chose to stand in the shadow of her partner.

As Joan Castleman, Glenn is at once detached and devoted. She doesn’t want her husband to mention her in his thank you speech, she is aware of her husband’s affairs. But then why doesn’t she walk away? And is it always as easy as it seems, to just throw suggestions at women like Joan? Glenn embodies these complexities and wears them like an armour. She seems to fight for her character, and at times, she is just Joan.

Glenn, who has already snagged the Golden Globe this year, said in her acceptance speech, “I am thinking of my mom, who really sublimated herself to my father her whole life and in her 80s she said to me, I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything.” And it feels like this one line forms the entire basis of Glenn’s performance in The Wife. Strong but emotional, and despite not occupying the screen space a hundred percent, she left a powerful impact.

While Lady Gaga is also winning accolades for her breakout act in A Star is Born, it’s Olivia Colman who stole her co-stars’ thunder with her odd blend of weird, sentimental and the witty queen. The five actresses nominated in the Best Actress category include Glenn Close (The Wife), Lady Gaga (A Star is Born), Olivia Colman (The Favourite), Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me) and Yalitza Aparicio (Roma).