Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Garrett Wareing, Kevin McHale, Eddie Izzard, Kathy Bates, Josh Lucas, Debra Winger, Joe West.
Distributor: Other
Runtime: 103 mins. Reviewed in May 2015
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Remembering a film about a child and music, August Rush, from 2007, I glanced at my review at the time and it struck a chord (so to speak) for the response to Boychoir. Here it is, ‘If you are a reader of reviews by the more ‘serious’ critics, you will find a rather universal dismissal of this film as far too emotional and sentimental. If you are a reader of reviews which try to communicate with the general audience, you will find the film praised for its entertainment and values – and the admission that it is unashamedly emotional and full of sentiment. It was W. Somerset Maugham who remarked that sentimentality is only the sentiment you disapprove of.’
Stet is an 11-year-old living in Texas. He is an angry boy, often smouldering, lashing out physically, problems at school, although the principal of the school (Debra Winger) knows that he has a singing talent and invites the American Boychoir to visit the school so that Stet can audition. He interprets things wrongly and runs out.
Meanwhile at home, his mother is alcoholic, a pill-taker, unmarried, her life is a wreck. Within some minutes, she is literally in a wreck and dies. Stet is emotional at the funeral but can’t bring himself to go to the grave. His father (Josh Lucas) turns up, having never seen his son but who has supplied finance for his upkeep and education. Stet is the result of a casual affair.
The father takes his son to the Boychoir school, assuming that he will get in, but the administration is reluctant, especially the Master Conductor (Dustin Hoffman) who remembers Stet running out of the audition. Sometimes a big cheque helps and Stet is accepted to the school.
As might be expected, he does not fit in with many of the boys, or with some of the staff, getting himself into quarrels, lacking discipline which the Conductor interprets as lack of respect. However, everybody recognises that Stet has a special gift in his voice.
The screenplay is more or less predictable, and while there are no great surprises, sympathetic audiences will want to follow Stet’s development in the school, relating with the boys, academic studies, sport, music theory, music practice. The audience does get a good idea of what this kind of music education entails.
For music lovers, there is quite a range of music, a range of pieces for individuals and for the choir, from Faure to Benjamin Britten. The choir, with rival eyes on The Vienna Boys Choir, wants to be accepted to sing in New York City. When they get the opportunity, because of Stet and his voice (a performance that was almost sabotaged by a jealous boy stealing his score), the choice is Handel’s Messiah, with his alleluia chorus and the soloist having to reach and sustain a very high note. Will the boy, analytic in his approach to singing, gain the day or will the more instinctive Stet be chosen?
In the background, there is also the situation with Stet’s father, his not having told his family the truth, there being some tickets to a concert sent anonymously to the family, the father wanting to send his son to a school in Switzerland, and a solution, happily, for the benefit of Stet.
The film has been directed by Canadian, François Girard, whose films included 32 Variations by Glenn Gould and The Red Violin.
Audiences will enjoy seeing Dustin Hoffman, a touch irascible, as the conductor of the choir, very demanding, with very little back story until a final conversation with Stet, a story of frustration and disappointment. Eddie Vizard is Drake, in waiting to take over from Dustin Hoffman, a perfectionist, sometimes pedantic, with favourites. Kevin McHale is the very young and sympathetic teacher who supports Stet. And, as always, and enjoyable performance from Kathy Bates as the administrator of the school, and she gets a couple of very telling speeches and delivers them with great gusto.
The film introduces a Garrett Wareing as Stet. He is quite persuasive, as the angry boy, not always sympathetic, finding his way in the school, realising his great desire to sing but having to overcome anger and antagonisms.
When the school emphasises that Handel’s Messiah is a crowd-please, we realise that this is what this film intends to be, a crowd-pleaser about music, song, boy choir voices (which sooner or later will break) and, as the final song during the credits reminds us, the mystery of the gift.
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