Tearjerker gives it the full monty
MILITARY WIVES ★★★★✩ (Cert 12A, 113 minutes) Director: Peter Cattaneo Stars: Kristin Scott Thomas, Sharon Horgan
ONWARD ★★★★✩
(Cert U, 107 minutes)
Director: Dan Scanlon
Stars: Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-dreyfus, Octavia Spencer
ESCAPE FROM PRETORIA ★★★✩✩
(Cert 12A, 104 minutes)
Director: Francis Annan
Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Ian Hart, Daniel Webber
IT WAS the film that sent Hot Chocolate back into the charts, put Prince Charles on the dole (if only for a photo-opportunity) and sparked a mini golden age for British comedy.
When Peter Catteneo’s drama about a gang of saggy-bottomed Sheffield strippers became an unlikely global hit, producers cast their nets for “the next
Full Monty”.
The first batch of films in this new genre (plucky Brits take up quirky hobby) were promising. Calendar Girls (prim ladies go nude modelling) and Kinky Boots (shoe salesman discovers the drag scene) were both box office hits that went on to have second lives on stage.
But over the past decade, the ideas have begun to dry up.when a gang of depressed middle-aged men formed a synchronised swimming team in 2018’s Swimming With Men, an already low water mark had been breached.
But now Catteneo is back with another belter. Military Wives may march to some very familiar beats but it should banish all memories of Rob Brydon in budgie smugglers.
Fans of TV choirmaster Gareth Malone will remember the group of singing soldiers’ spouses who scored an unlikely Christmas Number One in 2011.This funny, big-hearted tear-jerker takes us to an English military base to tell a highly fictionalised origins story.
When the servicemen and women leave for a tour of Afghanistan, someone needs to organise morale-boosting activities for the women they left behind.
As the wife of the newly promoted
Regimental Sergeant Major, this honour falls to a reluctant Lisa (Sharon Horgan) who is struggling to raise her mouthy teenage daughter Frankie (India Ria Amarteifio).
Her first idea is to form a knitting/ drinking club, but when that unravels she unpacks her old synthesiser and dishes out song sheets. piquing the interest of tweedy Kate (Kristin Scott Thomas).
As the wife of the highest ranking officer (Greg Wise’s colonel), she is supposed to stand apart from the rabble. But Kate, who is mourning her soldier son, needs a distraction too.
“Can we hear the ‘T’s, please. Enunciate!” she cries as the women murder Tears For Fears’ Shout.
As is often the case, the two leads are opposites who gradually discover they have some common ground.the bickering choirmasters are a great double act but Cattaneo also gives them space to develop three-dimensional characters.
Scott Thomas never lets stuffy Kate feel like a caricature. She may be a condescending control freak but we can always see the vulnerability beneath that stiff upper lip.
The minor players have their moments in the spotlight too.amy James-kelly, who plays newlywed Sarah, has a beautifully written scene with Scott Thomas, and Gaby French makes us root for nervous Welsh songbird Jess.
Will the women overcome those final act hitches and be on song for the big finale? Yes, it’s predictable but it also feels strangely timely. Succumb to its charms and you’ll leave with the Ready Brek glow that comes from seeing decent human beings pull together in a common goal.
Onward is another cockle warmer that recycles an old formula. “Long ago, the world was full of wonder,” says an introductory voice-over.we’re then shown a fantasy realm filled with mythical creatures.
But casting spells was hard work. Once they developed smartphones and fast food, magic faded into myth and Middle Earth turned into a bog-standard American suburb.
It’s here that we meet two pointy-eared siblings – shy Ian (voiced by Tom
Holland) and his boisterous big brother Barley (Chris Pratt).
On his 16th birthday, Ian discovers he has inherited his dead father’s magical genes when he is bequeathed a wizard’s staff, a gem and a magical spell that could bring Dad back to life for a single day.
But when the gem shatters half way through the spell casting, the brothers are just left with their father’s lower half.to restore the talking and hugging bits, they go on a quest to find a replacement.
On the way, we get car chases, visual gags and a fat-free script that moves the story along with clever call-backs and amusing riffs on the fantasy setting.
Like Pixar’s best movies, this touching adventure keeps children and adults under its spell. The tear-jerking ending could turn grown-ups into babies.
Former boy wizard Daniel Radcliffe doesn’t bring enough to Escape From
Pretoria – a solid but uninspired account of Tim Jenkin’s remarkable prison break.
The grown-up Harry Potter (plus dodgy accent and wig) plays a young ANC activist who fashioned a set of wooden keys to escape a maximum security prison in apartheid-era South Africa.
The dialogue is clunky and the characters are thinly sketched but there are some nail-biting near misses as he creeps around the prison at night twisting brittle pieces of timber into creaky metal locks.