Based on real world events, Military Wives puts the spotlight on the most under appreciated participants of military life, the partners left behind. From the same director of The Full Monty, Peter Cattaneo, comes the story of a group of women who create a choir to help fill the time while their partners are overseas serving active duty.
This ensemble grows and becomes much more than just a singing group and it increases in importance as its participants deal with the pressures and tragedies that can accompany life in the army. The large cast provides different view points from the various rungs of the military ladder.
Kristin Scott Thomas delivers one of her text book perfect performances as a repressed English lady with too much privilege and seemingly not enough humanity. There is more to her than that though as this paralysis stems from a personal loss and a husband with an overdeveloped sense of duty.
The work offers few revelations in the way of structure and storyline but what does surprise is how emotionally engaging it is. By the end of Military Wives, there was not a dry eye in the house and the end was both bittersweet and memorable.
Rob Hudson
www.transmissionfilms.com.au
