Chuck Chuck Baby review – joyous singalong celebration of female friendship

There’s nothing quite like the bittersweet, cathartic rush of belting out a ballad along with the radio, of momentarily singing away the sadness. First-time feature director Janis Pugh harnesses this to heart-swelling effect in a gorgeous celebration of female camaraderie, second chances and poultry processing. Chuck Chuck Baby is not quite a musical, or at least not in the conventional sense. But music is this north Wales-set film’s beating heart, and a temporary escape for Helen (Louise Brealey), whose thankless existence is divided between shifts at the local chicken factory and miserable home life with a husband (Celyn Jones) who has replaced her with his new girlfriend (Emily Fairn).

There are moments of levity – shared jokes on the chicken packing production line; evenings spent with her beloved mother-in-law Gwen (Sorcha Cusack). But Gwen is in the final stages of terminal cancer, and all the factory floor banter in the world can’t obscure the fact that being alone and elbow-deep in poultry is no kind of future. Then a charismatic figure from the past returns to town. Joanne (Annabel Scholey) was Helen’s secret crush at school, and the feelings between them have only deepened during their time apart.

I should mention at this point that Louise Brealey is a very dear friend of mine, and as such she’ll probably forgive me for saying that she’s not the most polished singer in the world. She is, however, a phenomenal actor, and this is among her very finest performances. The cracks and imperfections in her voice as she sings along with Neil Diamond’s I Am… I Said pretty much broke me.

• In UK and Irish cinemas