MARION (Vanessa Redgrave), terminally ill and mostly immobilised, belongs to a group of aged folk who gather to enjoy singing. The people skills of her adoring husband Arthur (Terence Stamp) go no further than caring for her.

Paul Andrew Williams’s film is a love story with low-level conflicts between this pair whose devotion to each other is unchallengeable. Arthur’s inability to share Marion’s interests is the film’s dramatic pivot. When singing tutor Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton) enrols the group in a national competition, Arthur fears Marion’s determination to take part will be physically too much for her.

William’s screenplay generally avoids the clichés of predictability as the film’s dramatic threads intertwine, unravel then intertwine again.

The story finds comfort in vignettes of the minutiae of preparation for the competition, the love between Arthur and Marion, Elizabeth’s commitment to the group and the competition and her endeavours to persuade Arthur not only to join in the singing but even to perform a solo.

This is emotional stuff that gently tugs the heartstrings and activates the tear ducts, all in a good cause. Not definitively specifying the age cohort forming its core audience, it is about not relegating people to contemplative domesticity when they qualify for pensions. Interactions among the group’s members and their ethnic diversity sustain the plot’s warmth and humour.

At Capitol 6 and Palace Electric