Military Wives Cert: 12A, 1hr 52mins
The film year is not quite the same as the calendar year, effectively running from one Oscar ceremony – this year’s was in early February – to the next, with most of the hot contenders for awards glory all arriving in a slightly undignified rush in the last three months.
Which is horribly tough luck for Kristin Scott Thomas, who not only suffers the misfortune of delivering an absolutely fabulous performance right at the beginning of a new film year, and therefore running the distinct risk of being forgotten or overlooked come nomination time, but does so exactly in the sort of film that wins hearts – and ticket sales – rather than awards.
So, for now, she’ll just have to settle for being the beating, mum-jeans-wearing heart of a film that ordinary film-going folk who like a good story and an uplifting couple of hours will be queuing up to see.
This is a film ‘inspired’ by true events rather than faithfully based on them, so out goes Malone and in come Kate (Kristin Scott Thomas, above with Greg Wise) and Lisa (Sharon Horgan)
They’ll come out of Military Wives saying things like ‘Ooh, wasn’t it like Calendar Girls?’ and ‘Wasn’t that the chap who made The Full Monty?’ and be right on both scores.
Military Wives is very much that sort of British picture – funny, feelgood but with a generous dollop of heart-wringing emotion, too. If you manage to get through it without shedding a tear or two, you’re a better man than me.
But first things first. If you think, as I did for a while, that because you saw the Gareth Malone series The Choir: Military Wives on TV in 2011 you won’t need to bother with the film… well, think again.
When the newest arrival suggests the group ‘try singing’, the two would-be choir leaders immediately lock horns. Kate wants them to embrace a new world of vocal warm-ups
This is a film ‘inspired’ by true events rather than faithfully based on them, so out goes Malone and in come Kate (Scott Thomas) and Lisa (Sharon Horgan), the mismatched pair whose semi-official job it is to support the barracks’ wives as their husbands (and one wife) are dispatched to Afghanistan.
The problem is, ever so slightly predictably, Kate and Lisa don’t get on… at all.
Kate is married to the regiment’s colonel (Greg Wise), and – in a world where a husband’s rank also establishes the wife’s social position – is a prim, uptight nightmare who is happy to pull rank, jump queues and generally humiliate her perceived inferiors.
Peter Cattaneo – yes, he of The Full Monty fame – directs and draws fine performances, not just from his two excellent stars but from his entire ensemble female cast
While Lisa – the regimental sergeant-major’s wife and charged with the pastoral care of the wives – is infinitely more relaxed, happy to go with the flow, and even happier to knock back a glass or two of wine in the process.
So when the newest arrival suggests the group ‘try singing’, the two would-be choir leaders immediately lock horns. Kate wants them to embrace a new world of vocal warm-ups, endless scales and strict adherence to the conductor’s baton.
Which, of course, she will wield.
Jason Flemyng (above) is quietly rather good too, as the sceptical male officer eventually won over by the choir’s ever sweeter harmonies
Lisa is the polar opposite – happy to give the women a starting note from an old electronic keyboard she’s dug out and then see which old pop song they fancy giving a try. Bit of Yazoo? Or maybe some Cyndi Lauper?
Peter Cattaneo – yes, he of The Full Monty fame – directs and draws fine performances, not just from his two excellent stars but from his entire ensemble female cast.
With Catterick barracks providing the filming location and wardrobe clearly working overtime on the unflattering denim front, he also provides a convincing sense of both period and place.
Jason Flemyng is quietly rather good too, as the sceptical male officer eventually won over by the choir’s ever sweeter harmonies.
But given this is pretty much the perfect project for a movie-making world currently crying out for female-led films and more made by women, it’s a shame the producers didn’t give a female director a chance.
Doubly so, given that two women – Rosanne Flynn and Rachel Tunnard – provide the largely well-written screenplay.
It does, however, have a couple of faults. The conflict between the two lead characters – both battling to lead the rapidly improving choir – goes on so long it begins to feel contrived, even once we’ve discovered the awful sadness that might excuse, or at least explain, some of Kate’s appalling behaviour.
Later, as our drama moves towards a Remembrance Day climax at the Royal Albert Hall, there’s a similar lack of plausibility, as the women prepare to perform a song that, as far as we see, they’ve never sung and is yet to be finished.
In between, however, there is a long period of movie-making near-perfection, as the choir begins to find its voice, the quiet Welsh girl turns out to have the voice of an angel, and Kate and Lisa begin to bond over drunken karaoke and Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.
And then the phones start to ring, Scott Thomas shifts into a higher emotional gear and we all know it’s time to start reaching for the tissues.
It’s not high art (thank goodness, I hear some of you say), but this is still one of the must-see films of the year.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Onward (U)
Rating: 
The latest animated offering from Disney-owned Pixar is a curious thing. Blending Harry Potter-style magic with the questing of a fantasy video game, it eventually serves up a teary five-star ending.
But until then it seems distinctly pedestrian, saved only by two outstanding voice performances from Tom Holland and Chris Pratt.
Set in a world where talking centaurs are policemen, delinquent unicorns rummage through dustbins and the power of magic is fading, they voice elf brothers who have grown up without their long-dead father.
Set in a world where talking centaurs are policemen and the power of magic is fading, Tom Holland and Chris Pratt voice elf brothers who have grown up without their long-dead father
So when Ian (Holland) receives a magic staff for his 16th birthday, he has only one wish – to get his father back. But the spell goes wrong and he only gets half his dad back – the bottom half.
Unless he and his geeky, fantasy-obsessed elder brother, Barley (Pratt), can find a special jewel, they’ll never see their father again. The quest has begun.
For a long time their Scooby Doo-style adventure doesn’t really deliver any cinema magic, with director Dan Scanlon struggling to find humour or pathos in having half a father along for the ride.
Thank goodness, the ending comes along to rescue things. Just about, anyway.
Escape From Pretoria (12A)
Rating: 
Daniel Radcliffe stars in this sincerely made retelling of the story of Tim Jenkin (Radcliffe) and Stephen Lee, two white anti-apartheid campaigners who, in the Seventies, were jailed after planting a series of weak explosive devices designed to distribute leaflets like confetti, promoting the then banned ANC.
Daniel Radcliffe (above) stars in this sincerely made retelling of the story of Tim Jenkin (Radcliffe) and Stephen Lee, two white anti-apartheid campaigners
What ensues is a familiar prison-escape tale with not enough story or tension to really grip.
The Photograph (12A)
Rating:
New York journalist Michael Block (LaKeith Stanfield) travels to the Deep South in search of a story, only to be transfixed by a series of photographs. He returns to New York in pursuit of the mysterious photographer and meets her beautiful daughter, Mae (Issa Rae).
Might their love endure in a way Mae’s mother’s didn’t? Finding out is contrived and over-indulged but good-looking, easy to watch and helped by a cool jazz soundtrack.