''Military Wives'' is a 2019 British comedy-drama film directed by

Peter Cattaneo Peter Joseph Cattaneo MBE (born 1 July 1964) is a British filmmaker. He is most known for directing the comedy film ''The Full Monty'', for which he won the MTV Movie Award for Best New Filmmaker. Life and career Cattaneo was brought up in ...

, from a screenplay by Rosanne Flynn and Rachel Tunnard. It stars Kristin Scott Thomas,

Sharon Horgan Sharon Lorencia Horgan (born 13 July 1970) is an Irish actress, writer, director, comedian and producer who co-wrote and starred in the comedy series '' Pulling'' (2006–2009) and ''Catastrophe'' (2015–2019). She also created the HBO comedy ...

and

Jason Flemyng Jason Iain Flemyng''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 25 September 1966) is an English actor. He is known for roles in British films such as ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'' (1998) ...

. The film is inspired by the true story of the Military Wives Choirs, a network of 75 choirs in British military bases across the United Kingdom and overseas, featured in the fourth season of the British documentary television series '' The Choir''. The film had its world premiere at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

on 6 September 2019 and was released in the United Kingdom on 6 March 2020 by

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

Synopsis

With their partners away serving in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, a group of women on the home front form a choir and quickly find themselves at the centre of a media sensation and global movement.

Cast

* Kristin Scott Thomas as Kate *

as Lisa *

as Crooks *

Greg Wise Matthew Gregory Wise, born 1966, is an English actor and producer. He has appeared in several British television programmes and feature films. He played the role of John Willoughby in '' Sense and Sensibility'', which also starred Emma Thompson, ...

as Richard * Emma Lowndes as Annie * Gaby French as Jess * Lara Rossi as Ruby *

Amy James-Kelly Amy James-Kelly (born 15 November 1995) is a British actress. She gained prominence through her role as Maddie Heath in the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' (2013–2015). She has since starred in the Netflix series ''Safe'' (2018) and t ...

as Sarah * India Ria Amarteifio as Frankie *

Laura Checkley Laura Checkley is an English actress and comedian known for playing the regular character Louise throughout three series of ''Detectorists'' on BBC Four, Monica in '' Action Team'' on ITV2, Terri King, wife of the titular character played by Tom ...

as Maz *

Sophie Dix Sophie Dix (born 3 March 1969) is an English actress, best known for her role as Captain Sadie Williams in ''Soldier Soldier''. She has also had roles in ''The Bill'', ''Benidorm'', '' Between The Lines'', and ''Holby City''. In March 2022, she ...

as Beatrice * Beverley Longhurst as Hilary * Jack James Ryan as Private Shaw * Karen Sampford as Choir Member *

Robbie Gee Robbie Gee (born 24 March 1970) is a British actor, best known for his ''Desmond's'' character "Lee Stanley", for appearing in Guy Ritchie's crime caper '' Snatch'', and for his comedy roles in TV series like ''The Real McCoy'' and '' The Crou ...

as Red

Production

In September 2018, it was announced Kristin Scott Thomas and

had joined the cast of the film, with

directing, from a screenplay by Rosanne Flynn and Rachel Tunnard, with

distributing in the United Kingdom.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on 6 September 2019. Shortly after, Bleecker Street acquired US distribution rights to the film. It was released in the United Kingdom on 6 March 2020 and was scheduled to be released in the United States on 27 March. However, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, it was rescheduled to 22 May 2020, where the film will be released on

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

instead of a planned theatrical release.

Reception

On the aggregator site

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of , based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critics consensus reads: "Like a favourite song you know by heart, ''Military Wives'' offers few surprises – but its pleasures are no less formidable by their familiarity." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' called it a "crowd-pleasing comedy-drama" that "hits all the right notes". Richard Lawson of '' Vanity Fair'' praised the performances of Scott Thomas and Horgan, writing "Scott Thomas sells the film, and the sorrow at its heart, way better than everything else around her", but noted the film feels "hurried and thin".

References

External links

* * * {{Peter Cattaneo 2019 films 2019 comedy-drama films British comedy-drama films British female buddy films British musical comedy-drama films Films about the British Army Films directed by Peter Cattaneo Films scored by Lorne Balfe Films about grieving Lionsgate films 2010s female buddy films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films