To Take A Wife

"To Take a Wife" is an Israeli-French drama film about the unhappy marriage of Viviane, an orthodox Jewish woman who desperately seeks a way out of her broken relationship with her husband.

This is the first film of its trilogy, the following two being "The Seven Days" and "The Trial of Viviane Amsalem", I happen to be a big fan of the latter, therefore I decided to check out the rest of the story's arcs at some point, good thing I did because I am optimistic about this being one of my favourite trilogies of all time.

The main character's household is an absolute mess, we see her physically and emotionally struggle throughout the movie, by facing obstacles in the form of her husband, her children, her neighbours, her ex-lover and so on and so on...The first scene aptly captures the trauma Viviane is going through just by her facial expressions, it truly sets the tone for the rest of the film.

The film by no means tries to portray Viviane as the perfect wife, the victim or the saint, which I highly praise, in fact, you quickly realise that the cause of the marriage being in a distorted shape goes both ways, the two lovers are simply incompatible.

The flaws of the film take the form of the acting, Ronit Elkabetz doesn't give an as strong performance as the one in "The Trial of Viviane Amsalem", she sometimes tends to overdramatise her showing during emotion requiring scenes, and I'm glad she learned from her work and was able to generate a masterful presentation during the latter film, all of the children/teenagers are okay at best, and in certain parts undeniably awful, fortunately, none of them take a huge portion of the screen time. There are other minor issues, but I think that they're negligible.

In another light, there is a positive factor that extremely works which is the film's authenticity, and its realistic view on the problems married couples face, it is also able to blend in religious ingredients with the story that makes the plot as a whole well grounded.

"To Take a Wife" is a well written drama that bumped my urge to watch the final piece of this trilogy, its realistic take on the day to day issues the characters encounter, is what lessens the weight of its weaknesses. This is a high Matinee.