Mark Reviews Movies: MILITARY WIVES

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 21, 2020

The fear, the uncertainty, and the constant dread of waiting for a phone call or a knock at the door are driving forces of Military Wives, a fine and lovely comedy about a group of women finding purpose in trying to avoid the obvious. It feels strange to call this film, which is about the wives of active military personnel and their consistent state of anxiety, a comedy, but despite the characters' unease and doubt and grief, it is one.

We can tell it's a comedy, because it ends with a big sing-along. If this were a drama, the film, as crass as it may sound, would have ended with a funeral.

That approach might have worked, too, but director Peter Cattaneo would rather ease us into those beats of distress and mourning within the story. That's mainly because of the screenplay, written by Rosanne Flynn and Rachel Tunnard, which eventually does shatter the good humor of its premise.

The premise is thus: A group of women, married to men and one woman serving in the British Army in Afghanistan, start a choir. The gag is that only a few of them are great singers, several of them are competent enough, and a couple of them are downright terrible. There's also the matter of the choir's leaders, whose leadership techniques and personalities clash with regularity. That's the comedy part, and through it, we watch how these characters come together, learn from each other, support each other, and gradually make beautiful music as a collective.

When tragedy does strike, it hits harder than it might have in a more straightforward dramatic approach. In laughing with these women, we, like the characters, have become removed from the reality of this situation just enough that the impact of the crash resonates all the more.

Cattaneo's whole approach seems to be a process of easing. At the start, the film eases us into this world, an Army base filled with soldiers about to be called to duty in Afghanistan. The atmosphere is initially mournful, with the conversations a bit uneasy and bags being packed. One wife puts her husband's things into boxes to hide in the closet, lest the sight of some stray object serve as an immediate reminder of where her beloved is and what danger he's facing.

The soldiers leave before the morning light one day. That's when the women and children left behind get to the work of trying to take their minds off the reality of what's happening and terrible hypothetical situations that could happen.

We've met most of the central characters by this point. Kate (Kristin Scott Thomas) is married to Richard (Greg Wise). To her, he's Richard, and to the base, he's a colonel, the highest ranking officer on site, leading the soldiers into combat. Kate keeps a personal distance from the rest of the women, to the point that most of them see her as cold and unfeeling, but she also lost her son during a previous tour of duty. She doesn't have much to do now, so she spends her days trying to control the other wives' activities and her night doing an inordinate amount of online shopping.

The other eventual choir director is Lisa (Sharon Horgan). The wife of another officer, she has officially been assigned to oversee the activities on the base, while also struggling to connect to her teenage daughter Frankie (India Amartfeifio), who sneaks away to go drinking with friends at night. Lisa is easygoing and personable, with a tinge of obvious sarcasm. Obviously, she and Kate grudgingly—and only grudgingly—get along.

After the women find activities like knitting and a study of film auteurs too boring, they decide to start a choir—well, a "choir" for Kate and a "singing group" for Lisa. If the two women can't even decide what to call the singers, obviously they won't agree on how to run the group, either. From there, Cattaneo eases us into the comedy.

There are other characters, too, most of whom have one identifiable trait set them apart from the rest. For example, Jess (Gaby French) has an amazing voice but is shy, and Ruby (Lara Rossi) is energetic but tone-deaf. As characters, there isn't much to the other women, but that's not the point. It's an ensemble of quirky and relatable personalities, as well as of that underlying feeling that bad news could come at any moment without warning.

The one exception is Sarah (Amy James-Kelly), a younger woman who just married her childhood sweetheart for love and the practicality of being his next-of-kin, should the worst happen. James-Kelly's performance is notable for how she brings an inherent sweetness to Sarah, without making her naïve or sacrificing the character's potential for quiet but strong dignity when a certain moment arrives.

The women practice. They shun Kate's stricter teaching methods for Lisa's just-sing-already attitude. They learn an assortment of pop songs and get better as they go. Eventually, they're called upon to sing at a televised Remembrance Day concert, and the excitement is quickly dimmed by a bad public performance, a knock on one wife's door, and the tension between the teachers coming to a mean head.

The plot may be the stuff of formula (The script is "inspired by" a true story, and while there's split-screen footage of real choirs made up of military spouses just before the credits, the story itself is founded upon a familiar template), but that's irrelevant to the film's impact. Military Wives is like a well-oiled machine of shifting tone. The film isn't as impersonal as that metaphor, though. It's driven by authentic emotions.

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