The Choral: Blu Ray Review

Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Mark Addy, Roger Allam, Alun Armstrong
Director: Nicholas Hytner

To say that the Choral is a genial film that feels anchored in yesteryear may feel like damning it with feint praise.

But in truth, the crowd-pleasing set-up-north tone of a mismatched group of people coming together to learn song The Dream of Gerontius for a performance is the kind of movie the older generation get less of in multiplexes these days.

With the backdrop of World War I taking the eligible men away from their lives working at the mill in the UK Northern town of Yorkshire, it aims to mine the same kind of humour and heart as The Full Monty did way back when.

When the town's choir master chooses to sign up for war, the local society finds themselves bereft of a leader. However, hope comes to them in the form of Ralph Fiennes' refined and sophisticated Dr Guthrie - but with one issue. Having lived in Germany and with a penchant for quoting the foreign artists, he's dismissed as being a German-lover, leading to friction within the choir and the Yorkshire society itself. 

It's pretty obvious where The Choral is going as a film. In its gentle edges and wartime humour, British whimsy and generally affable approach to the whole affair, it never really achieves a depth as perhaps it could. It's rarely helped by a large cast of characters that feel lightly sketched over and achieve only moments of stereotyped expectation.

Then again, it never quite sinks into the cliche you'd expect and thanks to Fiennes' presence and the solid performance of the other players, the film feels like a comforting effort. Some of the more subtle edges, including a homosexual subtext and longing, are nicely played out and generally solidly executed.

It's not that it never hits the right note, because in truth, there's been much worse fare from British cinema - doused in a reality throughout of life, love and tragedy, The Choral occasionally hits some highs, but never leaves you regretting having watched it.