Boychoir
Director: François Girard
Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Kevin McHale, Josh Lucas
Duration: 103 mins
Class: PG
Eden Cinemas Release
Stet (Garrett Wareing) is a troubled 12-year-old Texan boy from the wrong side of the tracks. He doesn’t know his father, his mother is an alcoholic and he rebels at authority, constantly causing trouble at school. But Stet has a gift – a pure, angelic singing voice.
His school principal Ms Steel (Debra Winger) recognises that this may be Stet’s way out of his dead-end life. When his mother dies, Stet finally meets his father Gerard (Josh Lucas), a successful New Yorker with a family of his own. He wants to have nothing to do with his son, to the point he buys the boy a place at the prestigious National Boychoir Academy, an elite East coast school, and dumps him there. It’s an alien environment and Stet struggles to fit in.
Boychoir is a coming-of-age story about a rebellious kid from the wrong side of the tracks thrown into a hostile environment. Screenwriter Ben Ripley chucks all the tropes into his pot – a tragic death, the bullying, snobbish pupils who pick on Stet mercilessly, the sceptical teaching staff, the emotional breakthrough as Stet’s talent is finally recognised and his ultimate triumph.
It is formulaic and predictable. Yet, as is often the case with many films of this ilk, it is saved from ignominious and meaningless sentimentality thanks to the impressive ensemble cast and in this case, its beautiful and soul-lifting soundtrack.
The film’s magnificent soundtrack is one of its strongest selling points
Newcomer Wareing does very well in what amounts to a lead role with a supporting cast of Hollywood heavyweights (apart from Winger, in a brief but welcome appearance, the film boasts Dustin Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Eddie Izzard and Glee’s Kevin Hale as the Academy’s teaching staff – all of whom excel).
Stet is rough, tough, but inwardly vulnerable. His temperamental outbursts are the only way he has to express himself, as he struggles to find his voice, both physically and emotionally. He shares a tender relationship with a characteristically good Hoffman’s stern choir master Carvelle, who engages in a battle of wills with Stet for his talent to come to the fore. Wareing shares the screen with his veteran co-star with confidence.
Kathy Bates is the disciplinarian headmistress with heart; Eddie Izzard is Carville’s rather snooty associate Drake; while McHale is the teacher who becomes Stet’s only ally.
Despite its shortcomings, Boychoir is a film that hits more high notes than low ones. Subtlety is not director François Girard, or screenwriter Ben Ripley’s strongest point as the film goes straight for the heartstrings with its subject matter, focusing on the more obvious elements of the story while tackling others superficially. I felt more should have been made of the transient nature of the extraordinary gift bestowed on pre-teen treble voices, or boy sopranos.
The film’s magnificent soundtrack is one of its strongest selling points. It features a selection of beautiful pieces, from the evergreen Pie Jesu to the crowd-pleaser Adiemus via Handel’s glorious Messiah; all courtesy of the American Boychoir.
Only the hardest of hearts will be unmoved by the sounds of the ageless music from some of history’s greatest composers. For there is nothing that provokes emotion more than the extraordinary power of the pure unadulterated human voice and the film offers many excellent examples of this.