Oscar nominee is fluffy and forgettable

  • By Robert Horton / Herald Movie Critic
  • Thursday, January 27, 2005 9:00pm
  • LifeGo-See-Do

I’m not sure what the French word for “shameless” is, but Oscar nominee “The Chorus” provides a pretty complete translation. This French import adds extra sweetening to a puff pastry.

A loose remake of an obscure 1945 film, “The Chorus” is set in the postwar French countryside, at an out-of-the-way, down-at-the-heels school for boys. A new teacher, Clement (roundish actor Gerard Jugnot) is initially at the mercy of his delinquents.

His solution to their rowdiness is to apply his musical skills in a group effort. He convinces his sour, reluctant headmaster (Francois Berleand) to allow him to form a boys’ chorus.

It turns out that the boys who give Clement the most difficulty are also the most gifted singers. But you probably could have guessed that.

Also, one of the lads has a very attractive, very sad mother, and Clement, after all, is a single man.

Director Christophe Barratier moves this story along with a sure eye for the crowd-pleasing moment. It’s easy to imagine him tailoring the material for the international audience, softening all the edges away until only chewy candy remained.

You might almost say the movie was designed to get an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film. Which, as of Tuesday, it did.

For instance, the movie’s set in 1949, but there’s little sense of the war, the Occupation, or the damage done. Except insofar as it makes the characters just a little more winsome.

The sense of place is strong, as the boys school itself looks like a real place, with a real history and a neglected atmosphere. The kid actors are all capable, if only Barratier would allow them to be anything other than types.

Leading man Jugnot is an expert actor, but his physical appearance defines the character. He’s a teddy bear, puckish and inoffensive, and we know his amiable, methodical style will win out.

The whole thing makes you long for the out-and-out Hollywood schmaltz of “Going My Way,” the classic Bing Crosby Oscar winner, which the story resembles. The teacher was a priest in that case, and he taught the kids “Swinging on a Star” instead of dignified choral arrangements, but the idea was the same. (That song was as Oscar-winner, and “The Chorus” has an Oscar-nominated original song, too.)

The difference is, “Going My Way” is memorable 60 years after it was made, and I can recall almost nothing about “The Chorus” a month after seeing it.

“The Chorus”H

Treacle: A French puff pastry with extra sweetening. This is the winsome tale of a new teacher at a boys school who corrals his delinquent students by joining their voices in a chorus. (In French, with English subtitles.)

Rated: PG-13 rating is for subject matter.

Now showing: Harvard Exit.

“The Chorus”H

Treacle: A French puff pastry with extra sweetening. This is the winsome tale of a new teacher at a boys school who corrals his delinquent students by joining their voices in a chorus. (In French, with English subtitles.)

Rated: PG-13 rating is for subject matter.

Now showing: Harvard Exit.

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