Sweet movie about sweet music

Rating: 6/10 (21 November 2004)

A failed teacher and composer arrives to a French school for boys with problems in 1949. He starts a choir and because of the power of music, the troubled boys don't cause that much trouble anymore.
This is a fairy-tale with some dark shadows. Francois Berléand as the tyrannic headmaster gives a rather good performance and so does Gérard Jugnot as the music teacher, but it mostly just surface anyway. Some energy is to be find with Grégory Gatignol as the worst of the boys. No hope to be found there or...?
Rather conventional, but because of its French origin, it doesn't become intolerable sentimental.