BOYCHOIR
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Eddie Izzard,
Debra Winger, Kevin McHale, Garrett Wareing
Directed by: Francois GirardScreenplay: Ben Ripley
109 minutes Rated: PG
When an 11 year old Texan boy with a magical singing voice
ends up at the National Boychoir Academy it’s just got to turn out well doesn’t
it? Add to that the kid has ‘issues’, not clearly defined but mainly
spontaneous anger perhaps stemming from a drunken mother (oh well she dies),
and there’s some sour to add to the sugar.
Francois Girard directs ‘Boychoir’ adequately but not
exceptionally. It is tight at times and sloppy at others. What he does do well is give us a story of a voiceless
young man finding his voice through song and the choir. That is done
convincingly and assuredly but that doesn’t always carry over to some of the
performances and the script.
Hoffman’s performance has been lauded but I think there are
significant lapses and falling back on technique and ‘tricks’ in his portrayal of
the rigid choirmaster Carvelle. He often comes into a scene delivers a line or
a pithy retort and then (invariably) walks out. That gets tiresome quickly and
really doesn’t fit in with the arrogant and self-confident character he
otherwise appears to be. I think he 
At times Hoffman was in fact shown up by Garrett Wareing
making his big screen debut as Stet. He is a bit unassured and awkward at times
but somehow that fits in with the ‘troubled’ and confused angry kid. The script
never requires him to have the redemptive ‘Oscar speech’ which might have
tested his acting licks but I believed his performance and that’s a key goal to
kick surely.
The usually reliable and ‘truthful’ Kathy Bates also
struggled at times, only really rising in one dramatic moment. I think she was
meant to be dominant and a bit feared but she seemed very wishy washy and
hesitant.
The stand out for me was Debra Winger who featured at the
beginning and returned towards the end. Playing the head of the young boy’s
school Ms Steel, and his advocate, she was completely believable and strong. We don’t see her enough in movies and I hope
this is the platform to see more of her.
Eddie Izzard as Drake, is also a good ‘baddie’ but suffers
from it being underwritten. He makes a good fist of the role but its thinness
necessitates an archness that might otherwise not have been so if better
written.
‘Glee’ graduate Kevin McHale throws away his wheelchair to
put in a great, warm performance as Woolly the teacher. I look forward to
seeing more of him in the years to come. He has a nice naturalness and his
relationships with the choir and his ‘management’ colleagues convinced.
Josh Lucas has a small but pivotal role as Stet‘s father. It
is surprisingly well written for such a small role and helps to produce a good
performance which has a number of levels that he treks through very well. The
same qualities he brought to ‘Red Dog’ show in this film and demands he gets the
same sort of meaty and demanding roles that the likes of Ryan Gosling and
Matthew McConaghey get, he is equal to the task.
Thinking about it, shouldn’t a film with characters named Stet,
Woolly, Drake and Steel be (yet) another Marvel instalment? Tangent…
There is a lot to like about ‘Boy Choir’ and I did. The
beautiful, beautiful voices in the choir scenes, the emotional points and the
sheer decency of the story are what make the film. I was a weepy mess for a
while after (poor man at the coffee shop must have worried whether I was
distressed by the froth on my cappuccino). Attention to filmmaking and acting
aspects plus another draft of the script would have made it unmissable.
Wait for the DVD.
3 out of 5
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