Despite some excellent movies coming out in the past year, we’ve been somewhat scant on the true feel-good, underdog stories of a troubled person who makes good. That is all about to change, however, with the upcoming release of Boychoir, which will hit theatres this March.
Boychoir premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, but is only just now getting a Canadian release. It features Dustin Hoffman as a stern conductor at a boys’ school renowned for its choir. Into his midst comes a recently orphaned twelve-year old boy (Garrett Wareing), a troubled but very gifted young singer. Against the odds, the choirmaster must help the boy find his voice.
The film has an impressive cast in addition to Hoffman, as it also includes appearances by Eddie Izzard, Kathy Bates, Debra Winger, and Josh Lucas. The recent trailer for Boychoir gives them all a chance to shine, but none more so than Hoffman and Wareing, who form the center of the uplifting story.
Then there’s the actual boys’ choir, which provide some spectacular music for this trailer – and, we presume, for the film at large. While the preview makes this out to be your usual story about rough and tumble times for a troubled young, both the cast and the crew will hopefully elevate the film beyond the mundane. At the very least, it promises to be one of the more uplifting underdog tales to come out this year. It was also directed by Francois Girard (The Red Violin, Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould), which greatly raises my hopes for its excellence.
Boychoir does not yet have a U.S. distributor or release date, but we can hope that will change before long. Until then, we can at least watch the trailer and hope someone picks it up. For those of you living in Canada, it will hit cinemas on March 6, 2015.
