THE CHORAL
- Colin Fraser
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
THREE AND A HALF STARS A demanding choirmaster aims to bring hope to a mill town depleted by the ravages of World War I.
DRAMA UK English #THECHORAL Starring Ralph Fiennes, Mark Addy
THE CHORAL is the kind of film that arrives as advertised, clears its throat politely and gets on with the job. Set in a Yorkshire village during the grim attrition of the First World War, it centres on a depleted male voice choir and the cultured outsider brought in to revive it. There are hymns, harmonies and heartstrings, all tugged with a reassuringly light grip. This is a crowd-pleaser that knows its crowd and goes on to please that crowd with admirable charm.
Ralph Fiennes (CONCLAVE) plays Dr Henry Guthrie, a refined choirmaster whose love of high art, German music and precise enunciation sets him apart from the rough-hewn men he’s tasked with organising. Fiennes is, as ever, a modest, likeable force whose ambitions for musical transcendence are far loftier than the film’s own. Guthrie dreams of choral perfection; THE CHORAL is perfectly content with a sing-a-long.
Around him gathers a neatly assembled ensemble: grieving parents, boys on the brink of enlistment, a mill owner wrestling with loss, a gifted female singer barred from the choir by custom, and assorted village types who find solace in harmony as the war steadily hollows out their lives. The narrative moves between rehearsal rooms, village streets and shadowy interiors, never straying far from its central idea that music binds, heals and, when required, distracts.
There is also a carefully handled gay subtext attached to Guthrie, hinted at through glances, guarded conversations and an air of personal restraint. It’s present enough to add texture, but never pushed to the foreground. This is British discretion at full volume: meaningful without ever becoming messy. The film acknowledges difference, then swiftly returns to the safety of shared purpose and communal uplift.
Visually handsome and gently humorous, THE CHORAL leans into its comforts. The singing sequences are stirring in a modest way, the dialogue often wry, and the emotional beats land softly rather than forcefully. If the film occasionally feels like it’s humming along rather than building to a crescendo, that’s by design.
In the end, THE CHORAL makes for a jolly pleasant evening at the pictures: agreeable, sincere and instantly forgettable in the nicest possible way. It may not soar, but it rarely falters, and for many, that is harmony enough.
