Film Review: The Choral (2025): Ralph Fiennes is Miscast in a Well-Meaning Film That Hits a Few Sour Notes

The Choral Review

The Choral (2025) Film Review, a movie directed by Nicholas Hytner, written by Alan Bennett and Stephen Beresford and starring Ralph Fiennes, Mark Addy, Jacob Dudman, Emily Fairn, Roger Allam, Alun Armstrong, Lyndsey Marshal, Amara Okereke, Ron Cook, Simon Russell Beale, Robert Emms, Eunice Roberts and Tamzin Griffin.

Director Nicholas Hytner’s The Choral is, unfortunately, flatly written from beginning to end. Ralph Fiennes stars as an earnest, wise and talented man, Dr. Henry Guthrie, but the actor is so lost in the part that he forgets to display the characteristics that make Fiennes so very memorable to audiences as a performer. Hytner doesn’t direct Fiennes to a performance that the film would have needed to work as a dramatic World War I-themed drama. There are a few well-drawn characters who seem to play a role in the story line even if their screen time isn’t sufficient enough to develop them all properly in this uneasy mix of music and heavy drama.

A miscast Fiennes is actually a small flaw when compared to the rest of the cast which includes The Full Monty‘s Mark Addy as a key character known as Mr. Fytton who enlists the help of Guthrie with the choral. Addy’s presence in a movie like this usually serves to streamline it and make it more accessible to the mainstream public, but Addy never shows any kinds of considerable charisma here which is disappointing because he’s usually full of energy when looking back at his past roles which include the aforementioned smash hit, The Full Monty.

Before saying The Choral is simply a tepid affair, it must be made known that the movie dives deep into the forbidden aspects of life during the time period in which it is set. Guthrie is not a religious man, nor is he a straight family man which makes his hiring to lead a choral feel somewhat implausible. However, for what it’s worth, the movie somehow makes it believable that he would be hired due to the choral leaders’ desperation.

When Guthrie chooses the work of Bach to perform, things don’t go well which leads to the change of inspiration for the choral’s work. The focus shifts to  Elgar (Simon Russell Beale)’s The Dream of Gerontius as the audience is treated to some uninspired sequences which don’t help advance the plot as much as they’d like to. Guthrie eventually loses a loved one in the war which is supposed to develop him as a character, but doesn’t do much to make Fiennes bring out the requisite emotions properly on-screen.

A young man named Clyde (Jacob Dudman) loses a limb and finds himself through participation in the choral and through a bond with a kind Black singer named Mary Lockwood (Amara Okereke) who has a big heart and a distinct belief in God. Other neighborhood characters include a middle aged hooker named Mrs. Bishop (Lyndsey Marshal) who doesn’t add much to the story line in terms of making it more accessible and relatable. Serving as a homosexual piano player is Robert Emms who is quite good here even if the script doesn’t give him that much to work with.

Uncomfortable scenes plague The Choral and it’s not the director’s fault that they play as flatly as they do. It’s just that the scenes needed more fleshing out in the writing department. One is unprepared when a key soldier strips for his girlfriend against her will. It’s hard to know who to sympathize with in this sequence and it’s totally unnecessary for a movie focused on a choral group. Ditto the scene where a guy goes to see Mrs. Bishop for emotional support. There are other ways to show the struggles of young soldiers than diving in to their sex lives in a film in which these characters are not always central to the movie’s main themes.

Fiennes tries too hard. He essentially looks like F. Murray Abraham in this movie and it’s easier to see Fiennes in parts that he is more immersed in. It feels like he was filming this movie at the same time as other projects (possibly Conclave or 28 Years Later) and Fiennes’ energy levels are unusually restrained. Dudman’s nuanced performance is almost the saving grace of the movie, but he gets lost in the shuffle eventually.

Going into this movie with high aspirations didn’t help much. When one sees Ralph Fiennes in an inspirational picture with all the ingredients of a warm-hearted crowd pleaser, one wishes for a well-made, well-acted, but somewhat conventional (in a good way) movie. The Choral looks like it was put together in a haphazard fashion where the structure of the plot and the characters are concerned. This film looks great in terms of its cinematography, but the pieces don’t fit comfortably together in any way, shape or form. This picture becomes the furthest thing from a Hollywood hit due to its inconsistencies in tone.

That being said, fans of Fiennes may like The Choral in a very basic way. Just being aware that this isn’t the actor’s finest hour, one may still find something to like about the story of underdogs coming together to perform in a time of tragedy. Addy has done an underdog story before much better with The Full Monty. Fiennes could have been busy on other, better movies during filming The Choral, but he tries really hard to make this performance work. It only does in spurts, however, making The Choral a major disappointment.

Rating: 5.5/10

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