The Choral

Watched at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

Ralph Fiennes provides a very strong and energetic performance in an otherwise, cheesy and predictable period piece tale about WWII. The writing and direction pretty follows every single cheesy, predictable and basic structure for period piece movies in recent times. While it does offer some new insight about the time era and the characters purposes and setting, as a whole, the movie doesn't really offer much to add. Because many of the narrative choices and structure was predictable, cliche and uninteresting.

Throughout, the musical moments are pretty good as there are some heartfelt purposeful singing and musical scores. The production designs are good and the performances from Fiennes and the other are pretty good. However, character-wise, they all feel one noted. Their development is pretty lacking and are displayed like many cliched historical movies without substance or creativity.

Alongside with some bland camerawork and pacing issues, the movie does have some strange coloring effects that makes the movie at times, feel unnecessarily dull. Including with some pacing issues.

Overall, it has good intentions but the experience was pretty forgettable.

It might have been because I love the dialogue of Alan Bennett, it might have been also because it was filmed within 5 miles of my house and I could revel in the street and mill scenes that are so familiar to me, it might also have been because I can happily sit and listen to music like this and just be. What I think it actually was, was the story - coming of age, the futility of war, the nonsense of people judging others - all contributing to a feel good lovely piece of cinema.

And yes the man I met in a shop recently who gleefully told me about this film at the till and how he was in it - so I watched for him too and saw his moment of scene time with pleasure.

For such a stellar collection of talent this was pretty disappointing. It felt like a slightly weak episode of Downton Abbey.

If a gentle tale, well acted, in lovely scenery is what you're after on a Sunday evening at home, this is perfect.

But what potential spurned. A truly great cast that could have got its teeth into something very significant. The subject matter was there, it could have explored any number of angles. But it just pottered along. With no real tension or jeopardy. No rise and fall of emotion. Just...nice.

The possible tensions were everywhere. War, nationality, sexuality etc etc.

I get that it's fine to leave these as mere suggestions, but, boy, there was a great film to be made here. Shame that this wasn't it.

It's the summer of 1916, and the industrial town of Ramsden in Yorkshire is feeling the effects of World War I. When their choirmaster volunteers, the committee of the local choral society reluctantly recruits the controversial Dr Guthrie - German-loving, atheist and gay - to lead their efforts.

Led by a predictably titanic performance from Ralph Fiennes, the film's strong cast lead us through many of the varying complexities of life during the war with a combination of humour and pathos, taking - for the most part - a relatively light touch. That approach creates the film's major strength and its major weakness: in touching upon these issues without drawing them out, it keeps the focus on the music and the tone of the movie relatively pleasant and enjoyable; however, in introducing so many social issues and then failing to address any of them properly, it feels somewhat like the filmmakers chickened out of making the film they wanted to make.

The principal focus is, of course, the music, and this is (eventually) performed wonderfully, led by the impressive vocal talents of Amara Okereke and Jacob Dudman. The journey from the ragtag band of overinflated egos to the denouement performance is well-told, if a tad predictable.

The other major theme is the war, and here the film underplays its hand a little. Elements of it are touching, but - despite some serious injuries on display, a soliloquy on the hell of war from Clyde, and a conversation about "the things you've seen" - the impact of the conflict on the returning soldiers is mostly left unexplored. Clyde, for example, appears to be far more concerned about his lost love than any physical or psychological scars he bears from his time in the trenches. It seems singing cures all such ills.

Other social issues of the time, such as religion, class division, even prostitution, are mostly played for laughs. The film seems intent at some points on making a serious point about homosexuality, but having set itself up for this, it fizzles out without anything of substance landing. At various points the film also seems ready to embark on a treatise that there is more that unites Britain and Germany than divides them, but again seems to lose heart.

The result is a film that is pleasant, enjoyable, and very watchable, but which fails to land any meaningful blows on most of the issues it raises.

Perhaps seeing this on Remembrance Sunday was a mistake but it heightened the poignancy and ramped up the emotional impact of Elgar's music. I was in bits at the end!

Has all of trademark Bennett one-liners and asides plus Hytner's imaginative take- not always to my taste but it worked well here.

Great understated performances and ensemble playing as well as more intimate scenes that highlight the tragedy of this 'list generation'. I loved it and sat through the final credits to hear out the glorious music.