Military Wives film review

I went to see a preview screening of this film with my husband on Tuesday evening at The Light Bradford Cinema.

IMDB says: With their partners away serving in Afghanistan, a group of women on the home front form a choir and quickly find themselves at the center of a media sensation and global movement.



Inspired by global phenomenon of military wives choirs, the story celebrates a band of misfit women who form a choir on a military base. As unexpected bonds of friendship flourish, music and laughter transform their lives, helping each other to overcome their fears for loved ones in combat.

In this comedy drama film directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty, The Rocker) and written by Rosanne Flynn (The Favourite, The Bourne Supremacy) and Rachel Tunnard (Kill Kill Faster Faster, Adult Life Skills), Kristin Scott Thomas (Four Weddings and a Funeral, The English Patient) and Sharon Horgan (Game Night, Pulling) take the starring roles as Kate and Lisa respectively.

Kate is the wife of the Colonel and following the death of her son in combat and her husband about to deploy once more, decides to help Lisa with the activities for the women on base. Lisa has a complicated relationship with her teenage daughter and the last thing she needs is Kate muscling in on her role and here-in lies most of the tension between the unlikely pairing. Lisa knows the women use the group to have a boozy time and let off steam and Kate may put an end to all that.

At the next meeting of the wives, suggestions are requested for new activities and once the knitting club has been disbanded as a bad idea (none of them can knit) the suggestion of a singing club, by new military wife Sarah (Amy James-Kelly: Jericho, Safe) leads to the uneasy formation of a choir.



Kate and Lisa are understandably not well matched to be running any activity together, let alone a choir but after a rough start come to compromise and when the top brass get to hear how well they are sounding, the choir is invited to sing at the upcoming Concert of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall. Will this mismatch of unprofessional singers led by a pair of bickering choirmasters pull it together enough to put on a great performance at such a prestigious venue or will it all end in tears?



The film is loosely based on the true story of the Military Wives choir, the one set up in 2010, and deals sensitively with issues such as grief, social and family conflict, fear and loneliness with the added benefit of joy thrown in. Knowing this is based on truths, you come to understand, empathise and sympathise with the characters. For example I went from thinking that an annoying Kate is interfering in Lisa's role (when she had been doing a perfectly good job up to this point) to realising that she needs it just as much as any other woman there. From cringing at Kate's efforts to teach the wives how to sing using her old school classical teaching and empathising with Lisa's insistence on trying to make the activity fun by injecting modern songs rather than sticking to scales, I came to realise that the combination of both is what the wives responded to, realising that no-one fully knows what they are doing, especially in a stressful situation such as when your loved ones are in danger. Compromise and understanding is what was required and this is a message much needed in recent times, to try and look beyond a person's projection of who they want you to think they are to the real person underneath and what they might be going through. As our much loved and missed local MP Jo Cox said, "We are for more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us."

I never watched the TV programme with Choirmaster Gareth Malone, but as this is not referenced in the film, it didn't matter. In fact, I think that never having heard the song the choir perform (or at least, remember hearing it), when the song is unveiled during the performance the significance of the lyrics underlines it with an even more emotionally powered punch.

With excellent performances throughout out from all the actors, not just the leads, particular stand-outs were Amy James-Kelly (as previously mentioned), Jason Flemyng (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) as Crooks, the only authoritarian male who stays on base who goes from putting on ear defenders to drown out the noise to their staunchest defender, Lara Rossi (Robin Hood, You (Us) Me) who plays Ruby the only wife of a female in the regiment who cannot sing a note to save her life and the choirs superstar singer Maz (Laura Checkley: King Gary, Action Team) who has to be convinced to sing in front of an audience at all, this is a feel-good film. But be warned, take some tissues along too.



Trivia: GOOFS When listing the activity suggestions on the board, "Strippers" changes to "Mr World" and back between shots.

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