Chorus, The MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +3 Content: -1

A remake of a 1945 French film, The Chorus (Les Choristes) is set in 1949 at a school for troubled boys. It follows the short career of Clment Mathieu (Grard Jugnot), a failed middle-aged musician who takes a teaching job at the Le Fond de lEtang (i.e., Rock Bottom) boarding school. When he arrives, Mathieu finds a violent, disrespectful bunch of boys struggling under an authoritarian principal (Franois Berland) who has no hope for them and can never quite keep them under control. While taken aback by the hardness of the children and of the school staff, Mathieu still retains hope for them. He shows them love and gentleness, and he also conducts his own personal experiment in discipline by introducing them to music. Mathieu forms the boys into a choir, exposing them to a beauty and peace, which they had never known before. And through the music, Mathieu finally breaks through to help them.

The Chorus is reminiscent of several American films like Stand and Deliver, in which a teacher demonstrates a profound faith in his students while investing his own life in theirs. The difference is the setting. This sentimental film takes place in a harsher environment, almost like a prison, with students who are rejected, forgotten and hopeless misfits. But Mathieu, unique among their teachers, does not believe that the boys are a lost cause. Instead, he invests in them with his own kind of redemptive, musical love and sees marvelous results. Christian audiences may notice a parallel to Christs redemptive love for the hopeless and helpless world. Jesus invested His life in and died for those who did not deserve it and so accomplished their salvation. Despite being an interesting movie with a profound message, Preview does caution viewers due to a few vulgarities, sexual references and violence involving children.

Preview Reviewer: Shaun Daugherty
Distributor: Miramax