“Military Wives” Sings the Choirs’ Praises

Release Date：May/22/2020
Genre：Comedy/Drama
Director：Peter Cattaneo
Cast：Kristin Scott Thomas、Greg Wise、Jason Flemyng

Viola's Rating：7.2




“Behind every great man, there’s a great woman.” Indeed, it’s true, and it has nothing to do with violating feminism, but conveys the meaning that a woman can be great on her own, even if what she’s doing is rather unseen compared to her husband’s deeds. This especially applies to the journey of “Military Wives Choir”, which encouraged a bunch of people back in 2010, and now, their story has been displayed on the big screen since March 6, 2020 in the UK.

Inspired by the true story of Military Wives Choir, this comedy drama depicts how a group of women in a military base form a choir and quickly find themselves at the center of global movement and media sensation while their partners are deployed away serving in Afghanistan. The first choir not only motivated other military wives choir around the globe, but also featured in the BBC series “The Choir”.

Based on a true story, “Military Wives” features a large number of popular choir songs, including those the real-life Military Wives Choir ever sang such as “In My Dreams”, “Stronger Together”, “Wherever You Are”, “Brave”, etc. Even the other songs are newly composed specifically for the feature film, Military Wives Choir sang most of them with the on-screen cast for celebrating the shared experience of the women whose lives were changed forever. Just like “Wherever you Are” that got the choir famous, the lyrics of the new song, “Home Thoughts from Abroad”, in “Military Wives” are all from letters between the soldiers and their wives.

According to Dr. Jane McGonigal, an American game designer and other psychologists, “distractions can be a powerful tool for reducing the impact of painful or negative experiences”. Distraction’s actually good for creativity and decision making, and it not only helps us ease pain, but also makes us better leaders. It’s even more important when it comes to military wives. While waiting for their partners coming back, if there’s nothing to shift their attention to, it’s easy for them to keep saying or thinking about something negative. “Military Wives” clearly demonstrates the real situation these women face and how they treat anxiety through singing.

Also, suppressed emotions are shown in “Military Wives”. It’s normal for military wives to be afraid, anxious and worried, but some people tend to lock these emotions in the drawers, and when we refuse to admit that we have these negative and weak emotions, we’re actually pushing away the emotions we want to experience in our lives such as happiness, love and being loved. In the flick, protagonists learn how to cope with their negative emotions and get along with them.

Although “Military Wives” is a comedy drama, the sisterhood developed and the touching voices sang definitely make it a tearjerker, and it really sings the real-life choirs’ praises, which brings the audience some hope during this tough time.

Picture Credit: IMDb