Military Wives is streaming on digital channels and through community cinemas.
"Life is hard, battles of all kinds continue to rage around us, and disappointments accumulate. But singing is the one thing in my life that never fails to take me to where disenchantment is almost nonexistent and feeling good is pretty much guaranteed," Stacy Horn wrote in Imperfect Harmony: Finding Happiness Singing With Others. Horn writes about the art of blending in with other voices to make harmonious sounds, the positive impact singing has upon being generous, the increase in dopamine levels of dopamine (feelings of pleasure), and the other highs that come from a group of people getting together to sing a song.
Music can calm our hearts or make them race, lower our blood pressure or raise it. One study indicated that making music together actually reduced stress more than sitting back with a magazine or newspaper.
Military Wives, based on a true story, is proof positive of these effects of music. It is directed by Peter Cattaneo who entertained us in 1997 with The Full Monty. It revolves the formation of the first women's choir at a military base in England. Why form a choir? To keep the wives of soldiers deployed to Afghanistan from constantly worrying about them.
Singing turns out to be good medicine for everyone. But turning a bunch of amateurs into a reputable choir that can sing at a big national event is quite a challenge, especially when the two leaders are quite different in style. Kate (Kristin Scott Thomas), is the wife of a commanding officer; she wants to create a traditional choir. Lisa (Sharon Horgan), likes more modern music that speaks to the women's feelings. She comes up with the idea of writing a song incorporating lines from the wives' letters to their husbands.
We can see why this first choir inspired the formation of military wives choirs all over England. This is the kind of feel-good story that is needed right now when the world is in crisis and so many loved ones are in jeopardy. It proves that there are many ways to be supportive of each other.