The Young Wife, which takes place over a single day, is told from the perspective of Celestina (Kiersey Clemons), the “young wife” of the title. Celestina is hosting a party that definitely isn’t a wedding (although it is) at her demanding “Maman’s” (Sheryl Lee Ralph) country retreat in a flooded marsh. And all her friends and family—even the ones she’s not excited to see—will be there.
The Young Wife is a 2023 American drama film, written, directed, and produced by Tayarisha Poe. It stars Kiersey Clemons, Leon Bridges, Kelly Marie Tran, Michaela Watkins, Aya Cash, Sandy Honig, Brandon Micheal Hall, Lukita Maxwell, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Judith Light. It had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 12, 2023.
Film Review for The Young Wife
In Tayarisha Poe’s “The Young Wife,” a wedding party plays out like a psychedelic fever dream. The camera keens and swoops, birdlike, around the guests — who are decked out in neon eye shadow and bright pastel-colored outfits — and a synth-heavy score lends the whole affair a hint of the uncanny. But beneath these quirks, Poe’s dramedy tells a tale as old as time (or at least as old as “Runaway Bride”): of a woman who has cold feet before marriage.
Celestina (Kiersey Clemons) is a burned-out corporate lackey who has quit her job in a fit of rage days before tying the knot with River (Leon Bridges), a lawyer-turned-cupcake-baker. She hasn’t yet broken the news to her relatives and friends, whom she has gathered in a family home in the countryside for what she insists is a party, not a wedding. As she waits for her fiancé, who is delayed by inclement weather, to arrive, her guests buzz around her like candy-colored flies, pestering her.
Her soon-to-be sisters-in-law can’t stop talking about pregnancy and children; her best friend is aghast when she discovers that Celestina has given up a lucrative career; her imperious mother disapproves of the marriage; and her fiancé’s sick grandmother, played by a purple-haired Judith Light, begrudgingly lugs around an oxygen tank and tries to convince Celestina to help euthanize her.
The film’s cacophony of voices, and a spotlight that roves across the party guests, creates a storm of light, color and sound in the midst of which Celestina ponders existential questions. Does she want to be a “wife,” with all the baggage that implies? Was it worth it to quit her corporate job in search of an elusive peace?
These are familiar, even hackneyed themes, which make the film’s relentless theatrics feel gratuitous and somewhat exhausting. Style overpowers substance, though Poe’s fantastic eye for composition and Clemons’s vivacious screen presence are undeniable.
The Young Wife (2024)
Directed by: Tayarisha Poe
Starring: Kiersey Clemons, Leon Bridges, Kelly Marie Tran, Michaela Watkins, Aya Cash, Sandy Honig, Brandon Micheal Hall, Lukita Maxwell, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Judith Light, A. Jae Michele
Screenplay by: Tayarisha Poe
Production Design by: Rocio Gimenez
Cinematography by: Jomo Fray
Film Editing by: Kate Abernathy
Costume Design by: Laura Cristina Ortiz
Set Decoration by: Samita Wolfe
Art Direction by: Dre Smith
Music by: Melissa Chapman
MPAA Rating: R for language and some drug use.
Distributed by: Republic Pictures
Release Date: March 12, 2023 (SXSW), May 31, 2024 (United States)
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