The Wife - 1 nomination

Actress in a Leading Role - Glenn Close

The Wife was truly one of my favorite films this year.  It is a master class in acting.  Glenn Close is a bloody beast.  She doesn't need a script, she doesn't need dialogue, she doesn't need costumes, she doesn't really need anything but her face.  She could read the phone book and make it into Macbeth.  (And is the most nominated actor never to have won an Oscar - this is her 7th nomination.)

In this film, Close plays Joan Castleman, the wife of Joe who has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.  They travel to Switzerland and intermixed into the story is their young life in which Joan is a young and up and coming writer who has an affair with Joe when he was her professor.  She is warned as a young woman that she has no future as a writer because of her gender, and she sets her sights on making sure that her husband can achieve his dream of being a famous author.  

While in Switzerland, a reporter comes sniffing around and suggests to Joan that her writing as a young college student had tremendous potential, and reminds her that her husband's was not of the same high quality.  The mystery ensues.  

This was such a great film.  Normally, I'm not a fan of the slow-paced narrative (as you can read in so many of these blog posts), but it so worked in this movie.  The acting is superb across the board and the plot twist unfolds so beautifully that you can't help but be on the edge of your seat the entire time. I HIGHLY (that's my first all caps this year) recommend this one - truly do not miss it.