Military Wives
They come by night to wave goodbye, hiding their anxiety under faces of good cheer. They are the army wives at Flitcroft Garrison, a base in the green British countryside; their husbands are boarding busses as they depart for a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Each will wait anxiously for the midnight call from the other side of the world that their man is wounded. Even worse is the unexpected knock of strangers at their door.
Military Wives touches on those worries, but even death, when it comes, is played softly in a minor key. Tragedy is only an interlude amidst the lighter fare. Although “inspired by real events,” the choirs organized by Royal Army wives during Britain’s intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq, Military Wives draws inspiration from a long line of “on with the show” movies featuring loveable troupers overcoming obstacles—including mutual animosity—on their way to their big night on stage.
The cast of Military Wives doesn’t dance, just sing but Fred and Ginger would feel at home in the scenario.
The British film debuted last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival and was scheduled for theatrical release in the U.S. in March—but we know what happened. COVID-19 shut down the cinemas and Military Wives was streamed instead.
The starring roles are played by Kristin Scott Thomas as Kate, the colonel’s patrician wife, and Sharon Horgan as Lisa, a woman of everyday origins. Kate organizes the wives into a choir over Lisa’s initial skepticism. “They need something to focus on—a project,” she insists. But Kate’s schoolmarm approach to teaching the Anglican hymn “Morning is Broken” (familiar in the U.S. through Cat Stevens) leaves the discordant choir nonplussed. Lisa has better luck, getting the crowd going with an improvised rendition of Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me.”
And on it see-saws as upper and lower classes tussle but find harmony in song. Lisa gives the girls the tunes they want to sing while Kate provides the polish, challenging them to be the best. Individual talents emerge from the collective as they face disappointments, setbacks and arguments on the way to a televised pageant at the Royal Albert Hall.
The comedy in Military Wives is situational as Kate and Lisa endeavor to understand each other. The sunny sentimentality seldom diminishes and the plot is as predictable as any MGM musical from the 1930s and ‘40s. But perhaps, now as much as ever, many people crave the comfort of decent human sentiment and the predictability of orderly outcomes.
