Meanders towards a predictable end without really satisfying

Rating: 6/10 (16 March 2005)

A teacher arrives at a boarding school for disruptive boys in 1940's France where he is able to tame his pupils through channelling their energies towards forming a choir.
I had high expectations of this as reviews had overall been extremely complimentary. However, I felt this was a fairly dull and unengaging effort which never really touched me at all.
The main actor was very good in his role, the children performed admirably and the other actors were also good. In addition the camerwork and overall style was proficient. However, it just seemed all a bit too smoothly done, feeling a lot more like a typical Hollywood film than your average French Film. There appeared to be no depth to it just a typically packaged film that tried too hard to appeal to ones emotions.