Review: Les Choristes

I didn't feel so well this Saturday so I stayed in with some OJ and a rented DVD.  A little regretful that I wasn't out there on Halloween weekend, but not enough to dent my recent want to be alone and clear my brain.  It was actually good. Didn’t want my actions to be because of the action itself and not the subject matter: i.e. going out because my friends were going out and it was expected that I should go out instead of going out because I wanted to get something from going out. 

Rented Les Choristes, a French film by Chistophe Barratier that tells of how a prefect through music lessons broke through a group of misfit boys held in a rough institution.  You can call it a French version of Mr. Holland's Opus, but I thought this was done much better... there's a subtlety in foreign films that a lot of Hollywood flicks overlook – perhaps they're on smaller budgets, and so they have to rely on more acting rather than special effects to tell the story. Plus there are no bombastic distracting side plots to overpower the simplicity of a great story.

In any case, the music is some of the best choral renditions I've heard – reminds me of my high school days singing in the choir – that's right, I was a choirboy... in addition to being an orchestra dork!

Just realized something – this is like one of those movies that high school teachers show to their classes during a final throes of the academic years or when they want to dip into the vodka bottle during classroom hours.  I remember watching Sister Act (music class), Robin Hood (the Kevin Coster one) and Ivanhoe (history), and somewhere in there Rocketeer and Ghost during middle school.  As a sixth grader, Demi Moore really made an impression.  I guess I have a soft spot for movies that can be shown to quiet down middle school and high school kids.  Inspirational, really.