The Wife and Her House Husband
Marcus Markou’s latest London-based drama examines marital breakdown.
The independent filmmaker Marcus Markou gave us his first feature in 2012 when he made Papadopoulos and Sons and now we have his second. It is accompanied on its UK release by a short film of his made between times, Two Strangers Who Meet Five Times, which will be reviewed separately. Although Markou is again the writer, The Wife and Her House Husband has a very different tone from its predecessor. It begins with a scene intense enough to draw the viewer in immediately. Cassie (Laura Bayston) and Matthew (Laurence Spellman) are a couple in the process of divorcing after twenty years together. Their aim is to handle things amicably, yet the first words we hear from them display anger and bitterness revealing just how estranged they have become. Part of Matthew’s annoyance on this occasion stems from Cassie producing a written declaration from their early days together. It's one in which they had listed what steps should be taken in the unexpected event of a future separation. But, regardless of their conflict over it, they do eventually agree to follow through on at least some of the steps set out in it and designed to ease their parting.
It has been suggested that Markou’s film is about marriage and the way in which couples are often unable to sustain the feelings that brought them together in the first place. On top of that, the very title of the film points to a growing rift in this particular marriage due to the fact that Cassie, a business woman, is the one who provides their income having become committed to her career while relying on Matthew to devote himself to looking after their two young sons. That arrangement had, as we learn, made it necessary for Matthew to give up his plans to become a teacher. While these elements are indeed present and relevant, the piece is not in fact dependent on these factors alone.
Not unlike the recent quasi-documentary Husband, Markou’s film is one aimed first and foremost at viewers who can identify with the issues facing Cassie and Matthew seeing it as a work that speaks directly to life as they have either experienced it or witnessed it. To that extent it is meaningful as a portrait of any serious relationship that is breaking up and its relevance is not limited to a couple who have chosen to marry or who have been together for two decades. It is also the case that, as we learn more about Cassie and Matthew and come to ponder as to whether or not the break-up is as final as it seems, we discover details of a major incident in their lives ten years earlier. It’s one which, bringing out their different responses, could have been more central than anything else in leading to the deterioration of their relationship. For that matter, the fact that theirs had been an open marriage in which Matthew had accepted that Cassie too might have other relationships is also something to take into account.
The impact of the opening scene certainly aids the film which is further assisted by the reliable performances of both Bayston and Spellman. Indeed, for its first hour The Wife and Her House Husband is virtually a two-hander. In this respect the film carries echoes of the stage and, indeed, Markou is also a playwright. However, compared to Papadopoulos and Sons, this work displays much more assured direction by Markou as evidenced by the way that he positions the camera and by his close work with his editor. He finds here a cinematic signature not previously apparent and there is also a pleasing sense of this being very much a London movie. Nevertheless, the film never quite recaptures the power of its opening scene. An episode with the couple masked and playing out roles at a club used as a sexual rendezvous seems wholly artificial by comparison. Later the film fails to integrate fully a long sequence at an AA meeting featuring an address by Sean (the able Peter Barrett) which plays as a monologue. Similarly, the manner in which the tale closes seems contrived compared to the rawness present at the start.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Laurence Spellman, Laura Bayston, Peter Barrett, Endy McKay, Joshua Antoniou, Kelda Holmes, Miranda Keeling, Alice Marshall, George Potts, Farshid Rokey.
Dir Marcus Markou, Pro Muireann Price, Screenplay Marcus Markou, Ph Chris Fergusson, Pro Des Miryam Jacomini, Ed Paulyne Antoniou, Music James Welland, Costumes Gabrielle Edmunds, Sound Adam Jouahri.
Double M Films-Miracle Films/Double M Films.
86 mins. UK. 2022. UK Rel: 10 March 2023. Cert. 15.
