Les Choristes (The Chorus)

Herald rating: * * *

A remake of little-known 1945 movie La Cage aux Rossignols (The Nightingales' Cage), this was the biggest local film of 2003 at the French box office.

It lends an undeniably Gallic inflection to the schoolteacher-tames-tough-kids story that's at least half as old as the cinema. But Jugnot, who as the title character of Monsieur Batignole lifted a familiar storyline into something special, can't do the same job here.

The film is set in a boarding school whose name, Fond de l'Étang, which means "the bottom of the pond", says it all: the pupils, all "problem" kids, are barely kept in place by a tyrannical martinet headmaster, Rachin (Berleand) as they run rings around their despairing teachers.

The new teacher, Clement Mathieu (Jugnot), a composer of large heart and limited accomplishments, resolves to try to get through to the kids using music, and starts up a choir.

What follows is not as predictable as it might have been - a romantic subplot in particular has a deliciously poignant surprise in store - but it could scarcely be described as breaking new ground and the boys' sudden transformation from shiftless tone-deaf deadbeats to a choir of angels is more than slightly implausible.

But the mournful, slightly Chaplinesque Jugnot is a treat; it's good to see two films in short order featuring one of France's comic greats.

CAST: Gerard Jugnot, Francois Berleand, Kad Merad, Marie Bunel, Jean-Baptiste Maunier

DIRECTOR: Christophe Barratier

RUNNING TIME: 97 mins

RATING: M (contains adult themes)

SCREENING: Academy from Thursday