British Film Fest 2025 Review - The Choral
Images courtesy of the British Film Festival.
Home by Christmas!
The first original screenplay by Alan Bennett in over 40 years was always going to cause a stir, so it should come as no surprise that The Choral, directed by Nicholas Hytner, was chosen as the Opening Night film for the 2025 Russell Hobbs British Film Festival. Despite the pair having previously worked together in adapting Bennett’s stage plays to screen, this is the first time Hytner has directed a Bennett original. Set in 1916 during the middle of WWI, the beautiful fictional mill town of Ramsden Yorkshire finds itself at a loss when their choral master decides to fulfil his patriotic duty and enlist for the war. The town finds itself clutching its pearls upon the choral board’s decision to hire Dr Guthrie (Ralph Fiennes), a cultivated composer, who has spent the past few years working in Germany and is naturally suspected to be an unpatriotic spy. Now he must recruit and assemble the town members in performing Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, the only score they could find that wasn’t composed by a German, but is horrifyingly Catholic for the staunch Protestants.
The film is overly ambitious with its attempt of an ensemble cast, and stretches itself thin trying to follow far too many minor characters without enough time to fully flesh them out. I honestly wish I could tell you their names but the only names I can remember are Dr Guthrie and Edward Elgar - the latter doesn’t even count as he’s a real historical figure. The only other is Amara Okereke’s Mary, the devout god fearing salvation army member experiencing romance for the first time, whose unrealistic conflict climaxing at the turning point of the film seemed to serve the plot, more than her own desires. The film tries to make us care about these background characters and their romantic dalliances, but honestly Dr Guthrie had more sexual tension with the news articles he read to check up on his German lover than the rest of the cast’s shoehorned romances combined - whether that is more a credit to Fiennes’ talent or an insult to the rest of the cast, I’m not entirely sure. Make no mistake, Fiennes is luminous in this role, he truly encapsulates Dr Guthrie’s very essence of a stoic composer with an unapologetic love for his craft and music above all else. The scene in which he attempts to silently mourn the death of his German lover, while the rest of the chorus unknowingly celebrate around him, is one of the most devastating moments in the entire film.
The saddest part is that this film had the potential to be so much more. The cinematography was beautiful, truly leaning into the dichotomy of Yorkshire’s scenery of windswept hills against the large brick mills with smoking chimneys. The film was at its strongest when it focussed on the impact of the war: a shot of a new batch of recruits happily being sent off on a train to war, followed by one of a returning ambulance train, filled with haunted soldiers missing limbs. However, these moments were far too fleeting, and too quickly followed up with some good old Yorkshire bawdy humour to allow for full impact. I understand that the film was trying to portray the multifaceted nature of life, but the balance was off and resultantly minimised the devastating introspection it could have offered. By trying to cover far too many themes in its 113 minute run time, it made one question if this was a story or the Tumblr feed of a recently politically-enlightened teenager in the 2010s who enjoys the odd meme. This was a particular shame, as the attention to music and artistic license through Dr Guthrie’s re-interpretation of The Dream of Gerontius to fit the political climate of their time showed a glimmer of the film’s potential for political statement.
The film is still worth watching, not only for Fiennes’ performance, but for the gems of humour, and equally, solemnity, scattered throughout. I only wish it could have been fully realised instead of relegated to a gentle British comfort film. So if you’re into lighthearted WWI films, chorals, the beauty of Yorkshire, and Ralph Fiennes’s captivating performance then The Choral is the film for you.
3 out of 5 orchestra members.
The Choral screened for the opening night of the 2025 Russell Hobbs British Film Festival. It is screening on select dates at this year’s festival. For tickets and more info, click here.