Military Wives a little bit corny and predictable but still hits the spot
Military Wives is a movie bound to put a smile on your face, a spring in your step, and also extract a sneaky sniffle from you just to ensure all emotional bases are covered.
Leigh Paatsch
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This one goes out to anyone who swooned to the true-story-behind-the-big-singalong strains of last year’s British hit Fisherman’sFriends.
Military Wives is a movie bound to put a smile on your face, a spring in your step, and also extract a sneaky sniffle from you just to ensure all emotional bases are covered.
This time around, the choir assembled to sing their troubles away is staffed by the spouses of army men seconded to the war in Afghanistan.
Posh colonel’s wife Kate (Kristin Scott Thomas) is the first lady of the station post on which all of these women live.
Though she completely understands what her neighbours are going through while their men are in danger, she also doesn’t think much of this singing malarky.
Enter Lisa (Sharon Horgan from TV’s Catastrophe), a long-time soldier’s wife who isn’t about to be taking orders from a snooty stick-in-the-mud like Kate.
Thomas and Horgan hail from two very different schools of acting – the former is trained to the letter, while the latter plays faster and looser – and the disparity does help Military Wives navigate some otherwise quaint sections where little seems to be happening.
The overall effect of the movie a little bit corny and a hell of a lot predictable, but a well-selected songbook of upbeat hits and moving originals continue to hit the spot nicely throughout.
MILITARY WIVES (M)
Director: Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty)
Starring: Kristin Scott Thomas, Sharon Horgan, Jason Flemyng, Emma Lowndes.
Rating: **1/2
Putting themselves in harmony’s way
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