Set on the homefront, a group of soldiers are about to embark on a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan, in support of the military efforts in the region. With heavy hearts, these troops are leaving behind their families for the duration of their service, each one of them promising their wives and children that they will return. However, such hopes are not always feasible, and to distract from the uncertainty brought on by their partners’ service in a hostile environment, the “military wives” form a group that serves the purpose of keeping them occupied while their loved ones are abroad, as well as giving them a safe space to express their feelings and receive the support they desperately need from other spouses that are in the same position. In charge of this group are two women – the upbeat Lisa (Sharon Horgan), who does her best to keep spirits high, even when the general feeling is quite downbeat, particularly in the days immediately following the soldiers’ departure. Joining her is Kate (Dame Kristin Scott Thomas), the wife of the colonel who decides to become involved in the running of the group, but often finds her very pedantic, controlling nature clashing with the more easygoing attitude of the wives, who don’t take well to her insistence on running the group like a classroom. They struggle to find a way to funnel their anxieties into something productive until the idea of a choir is proposed, which incites passion in the military wives, who realize that this could be the perfect activity to take their mind off the present situation – and they find that even when confronted with devastating challenges, the support they receive from each other is able to carry them as a group across any of the obstacles they find themselves facing during this time of great unease and despair.

Over twenty years since he broke through and delivered one of the most unexpectedly successful films of the 1990s in The Full Monty, Peter Cattaneo has returned to his roots with Military Wives, a charming comedy that trods familiar territory, looking at similar themes while being an upbeat story about overcoming the inner turmoil brought on by times of great uncertainty, and the challenges that come along with it. By no means a major work in the traditional sense, the film is an endearing comedy about a group of women coming together and supporting each other through the difficulties those who are married to someone who dedicates their lives to armed faces often has to face. Cattaneo brings many of the same ideas to this film in a way that is thoroughly effective, making for an exuberant comedy that celebrates life, while still demonstrating the importance of looking beyond the immediate obstacles and working towards the eventual resolution that hope will come to them in such uncompromisingly tough circumstances, where their entire lives could be changed with something as insignificant as a brief telephone call. Military Wives is an appealing little film that finds the perfect balance between heartfelt humour and emotional heft, and working with a talented cast and a story (written by Rachel Tunnard and Rosanne Flynn) that pays tribute to those who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their country, and the people who stand beside them, supporting them and giving them something to come home to at the end of what is certainly a harrowing experience, and helping them get back through their own undying devotion to true, unquestionable courage.

There are numerous films like Military Wives – many of them may not be directly correlated to this exact line of storytelling, but the concept of a group of relative strangers bonding over some shared situation, and determining that they need to provide some resolution to help in some way, has existed for decades and has been shown in numerous works that tackle some grave themes. There are few subjects more serious than war, which is one of the reasons Military Wives works so well because as we’ve seen in previous entries into the sub-genre of the comedy of overcoming adversity, humour is a powerful tool that can be used not only to create a more culturally-cohesive storyline that is far more palatable to the average viewer, but also profoundly respectful to the subjects that they’re paying tribute to, as these films all have the same inherent quality that persists throughout: an undying devotion to portraying the boundless limits of hope in times of difficulty, which is often rendered redundant in situations of overwrought, intensely dramatic artistic moralizing. Military Wives may often be somewhat derivative, and it hits many of the familiar notes that we’ve seen countless times before. Yet, beneath a relatively predictable storyline, there is a raw charm, a brutal honesty borne from the earnestness of a set of collaborators fully intent on telling a story that will move audiences and pay adequate tribute to the brave people who inspired this film, both those fighting in hostile territory and the brave souls on the homefront that find ways to survive the challenges they face by demonstrating the most admirable form of resilience imaginable. Military Wives is a film composed equally out of harrowing tragedy and unrelenting hope, two elements that work together in tandem to create a truly memorable tale of courage in its many different forms.

The film is almost entirely focused around the two main characters, with Dame Kristin Scott Thomas and Sharon Horgan being put at the head of a large ensemble of characters, and proving themselves to be the embodiment of the classic method of putting two completely different characters in direct contact, and using the resulting conflict as not only a means to derive humorous situations, but also to provide insights into these characters and their fragile states. Scott Thomas is an actress who has often been considered to be an arbiter of more dramatic roles but has given some truly memorable performances in more comedic fare, with Military Wives aligning with some of the more buoyant work she’s done in the past. The character of Kate is an interesting one because she’s constructed as a stuffy, traditional middle-aged woman who holds relatively conservative views, not necessarily in terms of her social views, but rather how she refuses to have anything she deems less than impeccable impinge on her carefully-curated organization. Horgan, on the other hand, plays the role of Lisa, a woman who is struggling to find her place, with her more flippant attitude concealing a deep insecurity that she is not willing to ever admit to feeling. These are two very different women, and their individual challenges are compelling all on their own. The brilliance of the story is compounded when they’re contrasted with each other, with each of the actresses giving truly exceptional performances that speak to a much deeper characterization on their part. It certainly isn’t traditionally challenging work, as both have played similar characters before – yet they still manage to bring an immense sincerity to roles that could have easily been thinly-composed archetypes, but are instead wonderfully complex individuals that serve to both entertain the audience, and remind us of the truth underlying this story.

Military Wives hits the familiar beats, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile, and when we look slightly deeper into what this film is saying, and particularly how it says it, we can see that this is far more than just a derivative, overly-saccharine comedy about tragic situations. Cattaneo skirts around the more challenging territory in a way that could be seen as avoiding serious discussions, only looking at more grave matters in passing. However, a view like this disregards the many merits that persist throughout the film, such as the fact that it uses humour incredibly well, finding the balance between laughter and melancholy in a very effective way. A film like Military Wives is always going to be designed to evoke a few tears – there are many scenes in which it is very clear the filmmakers want us to feel something (such as the centrepiece feature of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time”, a ballad that nearly always indicates some kind of overly-emotional moment), and from time to time, it can feel partially constructed – but it overcomes this by being remarkably direct in saying what it intends to. The film manages to look at deeply emotional situations without ever being manipulative, and even in the moments of the greatest intensity, the film demonstrates an enormous amount of restraint, maintaining its composure (even if the audience may find it increasingly difficult to do so) and remaining remarkably elegant in situations that lesser films may have used to infuse some unnecessary, overwrought insincerity for the sake of a cheap moment of reaction. Military Wives doesn’t always succeed, and some moments do feel less effective than others, but as a whole, it’s relatively successful in how it endeavours to uncover some sense of human truth in a very familiar story that can potential resonate with countless viewers who surrender themselves to the wonderful charms of this film.

While it may skip over a few of the more challenging details that would’ve elevated it to something far more profound, Military Wives is still a wonderful film, a cheerful comedy that carries immense depth when required, and gives its diverse cast something worthwhile to work with. Peter Cattaneo returns to his roots after over two decades of less-than-ideal projects that were nowhere close to the heartfelt brilliance he demonstrated with the cultural phenomenon that was The Full Monty, and shows that, despite losing some of the raw charms that made the previous film such a sensation, he’s still able to blend exuberant humour and heartfelt pathos into an unforgettably charming film about serious issues, conveyed with unimpeachable warmth and good-natured humour that uses its subject matter to not only move the audience but also convey a deeper message to resilience and bravery. Its a very simple film, following a similar pattern that often doesn’t contribute all that much to the genre in which it is firmly a constituent, but a film like Military Wives doesn’t ever need to be anything more than it is – its intentions are pure, and its execution almost flawless, minor tonal problems and some moments of slight inauthenticity aside. Occupying the ambigious space between mindless escapism and intense character-driven drama, Military Wives is a film that achieves exactly what it sets out to do, which is more than sufficient for this delightful comedy about very serious matters.