Boychoir follows a young fellow with a divine singing voice from the wrong side of the tracks who is reluctantly inducted into a choirboy academy. He rises amongst the ranks against all kinds of adversity to become lead singer of the group.
If the narrative sounds familiar that’s because it is. This same basic framework has been used over and over from Fame to Billy Elliot. Substitute the poor kid for a rich kid and you have Dead Poet’s Society; substitute adults for the schoolboy and you have The Full Monty. Boychoir ticks off each obligatory plot point with metronomic predictability offering no new twists to a tired formula. Everything turns out exactly how you’d expect.
The film boasts an impressive cast list including Dustin Hoffman, Kathy Bates and Eddie Izzard who are all solid performers but are subsisting entirely on their personal charisma here. The music is, as you would expect, divine, so choir junkies will find much to enjoy, others much less so.
While the film is well crafted with some divine music and solid performances, there’s no escaping the reality that we’ve seen this film many times before. It’s agonisingly predictable and if you’ve seen Billy Elliot you’ve seen it already.
Stuart Jamieson
www.beckerfilmgroup.com/boychoir
