Solid, simple, but still a formulaic World War drama. Nicholas Hytner’s The Choral has everything but still lacks for a memorable war movie. Set in a fictional town of Yorkshire, grappling with the impacts of World War I in 1916, The Choral, in many ways, tries to represent the views of the country during The Great War. The movie revolves around Dr Henry Guthrie—a German-loving, atheist gay played by Ralph Fiennes, who is brought in by the choral society of Ramsden, to become the choirmaster and lead them for a performance, after the current choirmaster joins World War I.
For a film that explores humanity’s connection with art, it marches on with cold precision like soldiers in a war. The choral society of Ramsden holds auditions for the upcoming performance. As the auditions are conducted, we are introduced to the characters one by one. As Mary (Amara Okereke), a Salvation Army nurse enters the room, she is quickly rebuked in the presumption that she is searching for donations. While everyone in the room is pro war, Bennett uses the moment to introduce the hypocrisy that lies within that microcosm.
As far as performances are concerned, Fiennes as Guthrie leads from the fore. Dr Guthrie is an audacious man, who is homosexual, and openly complementary of Germany. He dodges sharp words and projectile bricks thrown against him for his contrarian views. Essaying Guthrie’s stubborn attitude, Fiennes delivers each and every dialogue with conviction that can fool the audience into believing that the views are his own. He is joined by a strong supporting cast including Roger Allam, as the well meaning Alderman Duxbury, Okereke as Mary, Jacob Dudman as the wounded soldier Clyde, and Simon Russell Beale as composer Edward Elgar. It is one of Elgar’s compositions that Guthrie takes on to teach the group. But as Guthrie adapts the original for the times, Elgar becomes contentious about the fact, highlighting yet another narrow view of the larger populace. While Bennett’s taut writing acts as a base, Beale strongly marks his presence in those scenes.
While The Choral has a lot of individual strengths, put together, it still leaves the audience without much to take away. Music, cinematography, costumes, and production design stick out as self-serving parts, but do not add much to the storytelling. It might not be a memorable one, but still keeps you fairly engaged throughout its runtime.