“Military Wives” is predictably-rendered comfort food. For some of you, as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, this type of movie will be a welcome oasis of feel-goodness, but, for the rest of us, this fictionalized take on the true story of the wives and girlfriends of British soldiers serving in Afghanistan who formed a women’s choir to sing out their joys and fears, will be the epitome of cheese.
Director Peter Cattaneo tries to use the same audience-friendly formula he concocted with 1997’s Oscar-nominated “The Full Monty,” meaning unoriginal, safe direction and a nack for just letting the story do the talking. Too bad the conventional screenplay by Rosanne Flynn and Rachel Tunnard loves schmaltz, it’s a good thing then that Kristen Scott Thomas and Sharon Horgan practically save the stakes here and make this film as watchably comforting as one possibly could with such a weak script.
Scott Thomas plays Kate, whose colonel husband (Greg Wise) is deployed to active duty, feeling ever so lonely, she decides to form a club exclusively for the women who’s significant others have left them behind to fight in Iraq. Lisa (an infectiously likable Horgan), who lost her son in combat, loves the idea as well, but they both differ in the direction the club should take. Kate wants to create a book and movie club, whereas Lisa prefers potluck parties and pub crawls. The two begrudgingly settle on creating a choir, but even choosing the music becomes an issue as Kate’s high-brow tastes for classical music clash with Lisa’s kitschy preference for Cyndi Lauper tunes. These two feisty ladies don’t get along, but it’s quite obvious that concessions will be made and they will eventually bury the hatchet for an inescapably uplifting finale.
Cattaneo’s ham-fisted, crowd-pleasing delivery feels incredibly generic, even the characters play like caricatures rather than fully-fleshed individuals; like most films riddle with formula, there have to be checkmarks within the cast, such as the shy girl with a great voice, the widow, the lesbian, the rebel, the token black person and so on.
It all amounts to a sentimental finale set at London’s legendary Royal Albert Hall where the Military Wives Choir has been chosen to compete at the Festival of Remembrance. Their song of choice is one that Lisa composed from letters sent home by the men. How schmaltzy. Then again, this is based on a true story. I can’t really fault a movie such as this one coming out at a time when people just want to check their brains at the door and escape a ruthless quarantine, but “Military Wives” proves once again that there is such a thing as too much hokum. I’ll watch Scott Thomas and Horgan in just about anything, but even these two talented actresses can’t save a movie where every dramatic beat is underlined to the nth degree. [C]
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