England, 1916: the war is on. A dearth of male voices has required a rural choral to relax their acceptance standards, and anti-German sentiment has forced a program shift from Bach’s Passion to Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius—an oratorio about an old man’s reflections before dying and then being escorted to purgatory via an angel.

As the saying goes, art exists to explain the world to us in all its hopes and horrors. But if you’re wondering what social significance an old man reflecting on his life has in a world where men rarely grow old, then you won’t have to wait long for the answer in The Choral, a historical drama from director Nicholas Hytner and writer Alan Bennett. The question is posed to the new choral director (Ralph Fiennes), and this old stick-in-the-mud fundamentalist, who wouldn’t budge an inch two scenes prior, immediately chucks fidelity and adapts Elgar’s work into a relevant story about young men dying on the battlefield.

The Choral is a movie without secrets. There are some handsome compositions and enough worthy performances to support The Choral’s 110-minute runtime—though the one Fiennes gives he could probably do in his sleep—but every conflict is resolved so immediately and effortlessly, that the unintended message becomes: Everything works out if you say yes. Be it sacrificing artistic integrity in hopes of gaining acceptance or giving your ex-boyfriend a hand job because he lost his masturbating arm in France, a rather odd beat in a movie that’s as glossy as a one-hour photo.

The Choral (2025)
Directed by Nicholas Hytner
Screenplay by Alan Bennett
Produced by Nicholas Hytner, Damian Jones, Kevin Loader
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Emily Fairn, Roger Allam, Oliver Chris, Simon Russell Beale
Sony Pictures Classics, Rated R, Running time 113 minutes, Premiered Sept. 5, 2025, at the Toronto International Film Festival

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