Review: The Choral Buries a Compelling Gay Love Story
Ralph Fiennes delivers a poignant performance in Nicholas Hytner’s World War I drama, but the film sidelines its most moving storyline.
Buried below the unruffled surface of British war drama The Choral lies a stirring gay love story the filmmakers don’t seem too keen on telling.
Rather, director Nicholas Hytner and screenwriter Alan Bennett thread subtle hints and revelations about dedicated choir master Dr. Henry Guthrie (Ralph Fiennes) throughout the film’s busy patchwork of subplots. But, despite Fiennes’ tenderly poignant portrayal, the sad tale of Guthrie being separated from someone close to his heart during the Great War remains largely untold.
Longtime collaborators Hytner and Bennett (whose play The Madness of King George Hytner adapted into an Oscar-winning film) attempt with admirable ambition to nurture the choir master’s and a dozen other storylines in the movie’s let’s-put-on-a-show, ensemble tapestry.
Set in 1916, in a quaint English mill town that’s already lost sons and husbands to combat in World War I, the film follows the efforts of the local choral society to present a classical oratorio, in keeping with tradition. Unfortunately, the choir is running short of male members thanks to the War, which also claims current choir master Gilbert (Thomas Howes), once he answers his patriotic call-to-duty and enlists.
So the town leaders, led by Alderman Duxbury (Roger Allam), recruit esteemed music man Dr. Guthrie — though his reputation, not just in music, precedes him. “Isn’t Guthrie…?” inquires the town vicar Woodhead (Ron Cook), adding that he’d prefer they found a “family man” for the job.
Yet, they don’t have much choice but to take on Guthrie and his trusted pianist Horner (Robert Emms). A confirmed bachelor like Guthrie, Horner has his own struggles in mind, as does every member of the ensemble, from Alderman Duxley, hoping to preserve his solo in the oratorio and eke out a little joy following a tragic loss, to Salvation Army nurse Mary (Amara Okeweke), just trying to do her part during tough times.
Mary’s also drawn into a lightweight romance with one of the boys in the choir, though the film doesn’t pursue that dalliance or any of several young romances with persuasive enthusiasm. They’re simply more grist for the mill of dangling subplots and tangents in this overextended and underwritten portrait of a town at wartime.
Filmed in the English mill town of Saltaire Village, and on location in West Yorkshire, the movie captures a wistful small-town charm, as in a montage of the choir members practicing their parts while going about their daily tasks. But the look of the film is patently artificial, with flat, overlit compositions where everything onscreen, from the costumes to the cars, looks fresh, clean, and barely used.
The blood and dust and despair of combat feel extremely distant from the images of these squeaky-clean folks rehearsing for their big show. Missing from the buildup to that climax is a conventional pep-talk scene — which would have been welcome here — where Fiennes’ choir master might rally his troops to conquer their fear and take the theoretical field of battle by lifting their voices in glory.
In fact, despite all their efforts to be a part of the choral society and overcome obstacles to put on their show, no one involved expressly defines a purpose for this performance. Once we finally get there, the oratorio is well-staged and sung, especially by Mary, but not particularly cathartic. As with Guthrie’s love story, we’re offered telling notes and phrases but without the context to appreciate the music fully.
The Choral (★★☆☆☆) is available to rent or own via digital on the SonyPicsAtHome YouTube channel, Prime Video, Apple TV, and other platforms, and will be available March 17 for purchase on DVD and Blu-Ray. Visit youtube.com/@sonypicsathome.
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