In The Choral, writer Alan Bennett and director Nicholas Hytner reunite for a thoughtful period drama that finds grace, humor, and resilience in the unlikeliest of places: a Yorkshire choral society during the First World War. Anchored by a powerful performance from Ralph Fiennes as the enigmatic Dr. Henry Guthrie, the film offers a portrait of a community seeking harmony—at once musical and human—in the face of loss and disruption.
Catch The Choral in theaters beginning December 25th at the Laemmle Royal, with an expansion to other theaters coming in January.
Set in the fictional mill town of Ramsden in 1916, The Choral explores what happens when music becomes not just performance, but a cherished source of purpose. With most of the town’s men already enlisted on the Western Front, the local choral society finds its ranks dangerously thin. In response, it appoints Dr. Guthrie, a cultured and unconventional choirmaster recently returned from Germany and met with suspicion for his background and aesthetic sensibilities. Tasked with leading the group, he proposes an ambitious performance of Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, a spiritually rich oratorio that resonates deeply with a community acutely aware of its own mortality.
Fiennes embodies Guthrie with both gravitas and warmth, portraying a man whose intellect and devotion to music are inseparable from his own private sorrows. Around him, an ensemble cast—featuring Roger Allam as a grieving mill owner and Simon Russell Beale as Elgar himself—creates a tapestry of characters whose collective journey toward mounting a successful choral performance becomes a testament to the restorative power of art and beauty amid wartime disruption.
Alan Bennett’s screenplay is marked by his characteristic wit and emotional honesty. He balances the weight of loss with sharp dialogue and unexpected moments of levity, inviting audiences into a world where communal bonds are tested by war and yet strengthened by shared purpose. The film doesn’t shy away from the era’s anxieties—patriotism, class divisions, and suspicion of outsiders, etc.—but what emerges is a story less about the battlefield than the home front’s quiet courage.
The Choral may not be a rousing blockbuster in the conventional sense, but it’s precisely its reflective tone and ensemble performances that give it strength. It’s a film about how, in communities fractured by war and uncertainty, coming together in song can become a kind of salvation, a way to honor what was lost and to imagine something like grace.
“An unsentimental but deeply felt drama which subcontracts actual passion to the music of Elgar and leaves us with a heartbeat of wit, poignancy and common sense.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“A reminder that life goes on, just like a song, even when it seems like everything should stop in the face of so much horror.” – Kate Erbland, IndieWire
“The film is best when it chafes quietly against our expectations of gentle British comfort viewing…” – Guy Lodge, Variety