The Pastor's Wife (2011) Reviews

• I'm still not sure what to think of this one

  mgconlan-12011-11-06

  I'm still not sure what to think of this one. It's trying really hard to be more than just another Lifetime movie about either a crazy woman who knocked off her husband or a male S.O.B. who got what he deserved when his wife shot him. The film has a lot of good aspects, notably the way it establishes how the authoritarian beliefs of the Church of Christ conditioned the events -- how the husband could literally believe his wife should submit to him and meekly accept him even when he hit her for trivial reasons, and also why his dark side would reveal itself in surfing for porn on the Net and ultimately in making his wife dress like a hooker before he could have sex with her (all those religious hang-ups about sex being only to make babies, not to have fun!). I also liked little bits like the woman prosecutor saying, when she receives notice that the wife and her attorney are going to present spousal abuse as a defense, "I wonder what took them so long." (Since the movie is already more than half over before this happens, I wonder what took screenwriter Robert Freedman and director Norma Bailey that long, too!) At the same time, there are just too many lapses into familiar Lifetime clichés for this to work as the atmospheric neo-noir it was clearly meant to be, and Rose McGowan simply looks too young to have been married for 13 years and have three children, the oldest a teenager. (Then again they may have wanted a young-looking actress because Freedman's script contains a lot of flashbacks to when Matthew and Mary Winkler were dating and Mary was still just a teenager herself.) The story deserved a better movie, but this one isn't bad, and Michael Shanks is marvelously understated as Matthew even though Lifetime did the abused-wife schtick much better in "Black and Blue" (in which the authority figure the wife didn't dare report as a spousal abuse was a cop instead of a minister).

• lots of stereotypes

  Steelmagnolia062011-11-20

  As a member of the Church of Christ I have to disagree with the other reviewer. There is no conditioning in the church for wives to be underlings and take abuse. That is hogwash. My mother is a preacher's wife and she is very strong and outspoken. I also hated the scene of their wedding. Those vows they said I have never in my life heard at a wedding. That too was Hollywood hogwash. I also noticed some of the background music made me think of Deliverance. That's what Hollywood thinks of Southerners! All our women barefoot and pregnant and the men chewing tobacco holding a shotgun. Please!!! I didn't really keep up with this trial, but I wonder how much conjecture and untruths were added to this film. But, nobody but Mary knows the truth about what happened and evidently,the jury bought her story.

• The last line in this movie makes it a certain winner!

  rbrb2018-11-08

  A riveting drama based on true events. Pastor with wife and kids seem to be the perfect family. Until that is.... the wife shoots her husband to death. But there is more to the story then meets the eye... Rose McGowan gives a show stopping performance in this classily crafted and compelling real life drama: 8/10.

• like hell

  peterjacman2019-05-16

  Really? What the hell? This was the longest nearly 2 hours of pure boredom

• The Pastor's wife

  pipsycaldwell2017-04-22

  I was a member of a Baptists church for over 2 years. The Pastor's Wife portrays a fairly accurate account of the women in my church who firmly believe that the men in the family have the final say. The wedding vows too are fairly accurate in as much as the 'love, honour and obey' that were originally 'standard' vows. The pastor (or minister) in my church, although young was not (to my knowledge) violent, nor abusive. However he had little or no knowledge of domestic abuse as he had been raised in a non-violent atmosphere. His views were outdated though, because he constantly informed me that no matter how I was treated (or ill-treated), my role as wife was to be submissive, understanding and non-judgemental. My ex treated me okay (in public) behind closed doors, I too was subjected to verbal abuse both by him and his parents. The minister in my church did inform me that if I chose to 'abandon' the marriage, I too would be ostracized by the church. I chose to leave and (as promised) was ostracized.