Ambar SyedA film about military wives, a group of strong women uniting to form a choir while their husbands served in Afghanistan, premiered on the big screen at the Toronto International Film Festival last month.
The story has been adapted from a screenplay written by Rosanne Flynn and Rachel Tunnard, with a cast including Teresa Mahoney, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Sharon Horgan. The director Peter Cattaneo of The Full Monty (1997), his feature debut which won over 30 awards, including four BAFTAs and an Oscar.
The film celebrates bringing together women of diverse lifestyles, with Kate (Kristin Scott Thomas) wanting a busy schedule of book clubs and community involvement, and Lisa (Sharon Horgan) preferring a drink and a chance to blow off steam.
The two lead characters have an inevitable clash, with nothing to agree on. At first, the notion of beginning a military wives choir appears just as an attempt to find common ground, however, with practice, the women realize the joy of singing and quickly find themselves at the centre of a media sensation.
With a plot that is deep-rooted in sentiment, but still very much in touch with the realities of war, the film depicts home truths that are faced by military wives and the power of singing together to heal a broken heart.
When confronted by an anti-war protestor, one choir member comes back with, “We don’t have the privilege of being against the war – we are married to it.”
Allan Hunter of Screen Daily reviewed Military Wives, concluding that “the finger-snapping, toe-tapping music is the final element in an easy to love populist delight.”
The film premiere received overall positive reviews and is set to land in UK cinemas early next Spring, on March 6th, 2020. The North American release date has yet to be confirmed.
