Some films feel like a warm cardigan you didn’t choose, but end up wearing anyway. This is one of those: tidy, polite, and faintly comforting, even when it hints at real conflict.
The Choral is a WWI-set period piece with an ensemble that’s consistently watchable. Ralph Fiennes, as the choirmaster, brings a pinched edge and a bit of bite, which helps stop the whole thing sliding into pure cosiness. The story flirts with moral tension—community spirit versus suspicion, art versus propriety—but it usually gets smoothed over just as it might dig in.
What keeps it moving is Alan Bennett’s dialogue: dry, neatly placed lines that spark and vanish. Still, for all the craft, it rarely wrong-foots you or lingers after the credits. Pleasant, competent, and already fading as you walk out.