The Wife (2017)

Soundtracks of the Year: Jocelyn Pook likes to use the word “undercurrents” when she talks about scoring films. Her score for “The Wife” brings the undercurrents of Glenn Close’s long-suffering, long-silent genius hidden in her novelist husband’s shadow, up to the surface.

The quiet marvel of [Glenn Close's] performance is amplified by Jocelyn Pook’s lugubrious soundtrack, with its brooding and obsessive intensity, reminiscent of Philip Glass’s theme in The Thin Blue Line.

It’s easy to understand Joan’s quiet anguish at having put her own talents on hold in the service of his alleged greatness – her torment amplified by Jocelyn Pook’s score, heavy with yearning and regret.

Jocelyn Pook's understated musical score may well be the film's true hidden genius. We are carried along the slow pace simply because we are soothed by Pook's music ...

Jocelyn Pook’s score contributes to the mood without becoming overbearing.