The Politician's Wife

Watching this miniseries, you might think it's a thinly veiled version of the Lewinsky scandal, but they made this British miniseries several years before the scandal broke. (I saw it when it was first aired on PBS here in Los Angeles and I kept having strange flashbacks to it throughout the impeachment hearings.) Not only do you have the blonde scorned wife (Juliet Stevenson -- amazing!) and the young brunette political intern (Minnie Driver), but it all unravels due to the lies that the politician tells his wife. The first half is her finding out exactly what's going on, and the second half is her Machiavellian revenge.

I watched some of this movie when it was on Masterpiece Theatre several years ago. I am dying to see all of the movie and have been trying to locate a copy of the video to buy. What I saw was awfully good -- I agree with Areine's comments entirely!

Flora (Juliet Stevenson) is the happy housewife to Conservative Minister of the Family Duncan Matlock (Trevor Eve). They seem to have a perfect family until the media descend on them about his affair. He reveals that he had an affair with assistant Jennifer Caird (Minnie Driver) but he claims that he was set up by the ex-escort and her husband. Flora's father is a senior political hand and expects her to be the stoic supportive wife for her husband's ambition to be Prime Minister. Duncan's aide Mark Hollister reveals that it was not a simple short fling.

Juliet Stevenson is great. Her character holds it back a little too long for my taste. I love "The Good Wife" and this hits some of the similar points. It's a good start. I would definitely have loved to see the story continue.

In some respects, this is a "chick flick" -- betrayed wife gets even, but without pandering or being excessive. Yet this is a true intellectual pleasure, for her revenge is calculated, deep, and very adult; the politician's wife manipulates the political caste with the most delicate and appropriate word in the proper ear. A perfect movie for those who have little tolerance for the stupid or shallow, a most enjoyable view. I will be first in line when it comes out on DVD.

Juliet Stevenson delivers one of the best performances I've ever seen. The Politician's wife -- about an upper-crust British MP who has an affair with a pretty young thing (Minnie Driver!), and how his wife deals with it -- is an outstanding production. In this Blue Dress and Cigars age of American politics, I would think it would do very well over here. Unfortunately, aside from some brief play on PBS, it hasn't been given much exposure here. Direct plea to whomever holds the rights: if you can't release this in theaters (and you really ought to), please at least make the video available in the States.