‘Military Wives’ – Review
It’s not just those on the battlefield who serve. Very often it’s the wives, girlfriends, sisters and daughters at home who face a much more personal battle, and have their own tests and limits that they need to overcome. Military Wives is the story of these women, specifically the women of the Military Wives Choir, a UK-based organisation that brings together those who stay behind to find greater companionship and community together through the joy of song.
Now their story is brought to the big screen thanks to directing legend Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty), and this one is sure to bring a smile to your face, alongside plenty of giggles.
With their partners away serving in Afghanistan, a group of women on the home front form a choir and quickly find themselves at the centre of a media sensation and global movement.
Know for his success with cult comedy filmmaking, director Peter Cattaneo brings to Military Wives that quintessential heart-warming feeling, which audiences are sure to love in this film about female companionship, strength and unity. This is a film of both sobering lows and stunning highs as Cattaneo brings out the definition of what it means to serve, the service and sacrifice that those at home make for the ones they love.
Sharing the screen in Military Wives are Kristin Scott Thomas as Kate and Sharon Horgan as Lisa, and their characters couldn’t be more opposite. While Thomas is the up-tight, and extremely strict Kate, who is married to the company commander and who has been put in charge of the leading the wives during their partner’s next deployment, Horgan’s Lisa is the far more laid back and reserved member of the group. But while the idea of a choir does get them banding together, it’s only through a long journey that these two women, along with the other women in the choir must go on to find their voices and their courage, when all of their lives are tested.
Military Wives is very much a film that will lift your spirit up and there’s plenty to love about the interaction between the film’s eclectic group of characters. While it does take this group of women a bit of time to find their inner song, the film’s final set-piece at the National Remembrance Memorial is a stunning sight to behold, and you’ll certainly find yourself moved by it, as a tribute not only to those who serve on the front line but for those who wait for them to come home.
If you’re after a film packed out with all the feels then you can’t go past Military Wives. It’s a powerfully told tale of love, sacrifice, comradeship and triumph and well worth a trip to the cinema.
Image: Transmission Films
