‘The Wedding Gift’ (PG-13)

In "The Wedding Gift," Julie Walters, a chirpy British housewife, contracts a mysterious ailment which confounds the entire medical establishment and confines her to a wheelchair. While she undergoes test after test -- none of which produces a diagnosis better than "hysteria" -- Walters's devoted husband, Jim Broadbent, becomes her veritable nurse, caring for her virtually around the clock.

At the same time, he's also managing a financially ailing lingerie factory and sending freelance manuscripts to literary magazines -- all of which come back rejected. With Broadbent spread so thin and Walters getting worse, it's just a matter of time before things become even more horrible.

Stripped down to its essentials, there isn't much -- in terms of story development -- to distinguish the movie. As with other films taken from real case histories ("Lorenzo's Oil," "Awakenings," "Gaby -- A True Story," etc.), "The Wedding Gift" is a depressing litany of deterioration punctuated regularly by the unending courage and sunny cheer of Walters and Broadbent. The movie, adapted from Deric Longden's true accounts of his wife's struggles ("Diana's Story" and "Lost Words"), doesn't present solutions or even provide insights about perplexing illness. Walters's malady (which turns out to be one of the first documented instances of chronic fatigue syndrome) is pretext for a noble struggle against insurmountable odds. It's a story about sacrifice -- from two people -- with a bittersweet, bracing resolution not for the emotionally faint-hearted.

What counts -- as is often the case in British dramas -- is the ability of the performers to transcend meager narrative boundaries. Although Walters and Broadbent are guilty of unbearable ennoblement (there are times when you want to push Walters out of her wheelchair for being such a saintly trooper), their performances are warmly naturalistic and believable. Sian Thomas is also memorable as Aileen Armitage, a blind novelist who takes Broadbent's fancy when he's at his most vulnerable and poses a threat to his fatigued relationship with Walters.

The story is peppered with quintessentially British comic relief: The local postman (Graham Turner) reads all the mail he delivers; and veteran actress Thora Hird rolls out old-time shtick as Broadbent's dotty mother. But she puts a new wrinkle into the routine, dialing telephones without lifting the receiver or, when asked why she's digging for garden weeds in midwinter, replying "I like to catch 'em by surprise."

Although this film is loaded with poignant contrivance, director Richard ("Brimstone and Treacle") Loncraine and scriptwriter Jack Rosenthal keep things relatively restrained and subtle. Characters are allowed to have gray areas, to be clumsy and irregular -- and consequently resemble the living. These qualities may not push "The Wedding Gift" into the realm of great moviemaking, but they make the picture feel like something real and new.

"The Wedding Gift" contains momentary, partial nudity and minor profanity.