City Cinema: The Choral

Drama. PG, language, sexual content.
Dir: Nicholas Hytner, UK, 2025, 113 min.
Ralph Fiennes, Emily Fairn, Mark Addy, Taylor Uttley, Roger Allam.

“Lovers of old-school quality, rejoice – director Nicholas Hytner, writer Alan Bennett (The Madness of King George), and leading man Ralph Fiennes have just the film for you. It will leave you with a song in your heart and, probably, a lump in your throat. This quintessentially British comedy-drama is set in the fictional Yorkshire town of Ramsden in 1916. Conscription has begun, and the glue that keeps the community together, the Ramsden Choral Society, is in danger of losing its hold. When the lads turn 18, they’ll be sent to the front. Others have already volunteered, including Ramsden’s chorus master… Enter Dr Guthrie (Fiennes), a once-celebrated musical director who is now turning a shilling in a local hotel… The Choral deftly changes gears between humour and poignancy: a laugh-out-loud first half becomes a profound second. The singers and Dr Guthrie lose themselves in the moment while reality waits in the wings. With a soundtrack by five-time Oscar nominee George Fenton the music in this gorgeous-looking film is beautiful – uplifting and elegiac all at once… The Choral is a crowd-pleaser, but there’s bite behind the bonhomie too.” —Harry Guerin, RTÉ.ie