Cast Makes The Choral Soars

3 ½ stars

The year is 1916, and while the majority of civilization is engaged in a World War, the residents of Ramsden, Yorkshire, are facing a much more pressing crisis: their choral master has been called up for service, leaving them with no one to lead them through their upcoming production. Sure, there’s one man in town who might fit the bill. But there’s something…different…about him, and besides, he’s been in Germany studying music. How can he be trusted?

The idea that people care more about an amateur musical production than the war is too simplistic a take on The Choral‘s story. It’s actually a much deeper idea and, as directed by Nicholas Hytner and written by Alan Bennerr and Stephen Beresford, quintessentially British. While their boys head off to France to fight the Hun, those left behind know that music will be a key to keeping their good spirits and morale of the homeland intact.

Of course, if you’re going to tell a story this British, you need to cast actors and actresses who not only personify the souls of the people in the story but also have universal appeal to audiences not as familiar with those people and their traditions. So you give the lead of the new choral master, Dr. Henry Guthrie, to the elegant Ralph Fiennes, a man who can speak volumes with a gesture – or even the silence – of his character reacting to something he’s heard or seen. Watch his face when he listens to the music of the choral group – both the good and the bad – and you automatically feel like you understand and appreciate it, too. The empathy he creates spills beyond the rehearsal room, giving viewers an insight into what a man like Guthrie is going through on a personal level and why getting the choral group in shape means so much.

The Choral isn’t a solo performance; Fiennes is surrounded by an excellent cast, many of whom cinematic Anglophiles will recognize immediately, such as Mark Addy (The Full Monty), Alun Armstrong (New Tricks), and Emily Fairn (House of Guiness). There are other, perhaps less familiar, faces in the film whose work makes them worth keeping an eye on in the future, namely Amara Okereke as the Salvation Army singer Mary Lockwood.

And while he’s been a director for a long time, with a track record that includes The Madness of King George and The History Boys, Hytner deserves special recognition for his visionary work in The Choral. Like the cast, he does an excellent job of capturing the English spirit on film. Still, it’s the stunning way he captures the group’s actual performance that turns the pastoral pleasure of their English story into an emotional gut punch that takes your breath away.