Watch A Chorus of Disapproval For Free

One of my all time favorites.

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

A little gem that haven't disappeared into obscurity due to the public's interest in seeing two sacred monsters together on screen, Anthony Hopkins and Jeremy Irons, a reunion happened a little earlier of their Oscar wins back to back in the 1990's.Irons plays a widower who intending to not succumb into depression after losing his wife decides to transfer himself to a small provincial island, joining a theater group with the intent of becoming an actor. He sure finds himself involved in the people's activities there - getting a minor role in a play, and eventually growing as an actor with new roles given to him when someone is unavailable to perform -, finds some joy and some disturbance as well after receiving notable attention from two married woman. One (Prunella Scales) is married with the play's director (Hopkins) who considers this 'likely to do anything' kind of guy his new best friend; the other (Jenny Seagrove) is in a sort of open relationship with a man who sees this involvement as a way to working his way into offer business proposition to Irons character.Ambitious in its mix of genres but working with relative efficiency in between them, "A Chorus of Disapproval" is a positive film that shows how sometimes people can find the strength to not let them things overcome them, letting go all the bleakness and the sadness to find the courage to change themselves and hope for new things to come and finding them as well. Another interesting message relates in showing that the art craft must be more important than the problems of life (this comes towards conclusion in really surprising twists). On the other hand, the reason why it doesn't reach the level of grandiosity it should have is because there's things missing, things which would make it more relatable or convincing to audiences. For instance: there's some brief moments when Irons puts next to his bed a portrait of his deceased wife, we feel his care, love and concern for her in those small tender moments; however there's nowhere to be found a moment where he could something say about her, or about her death, not even a great moment where he could seem to remember something of her in a good way. This kind of coldness from the writers (I know they were based on Alan Ayckbourn's play so they couldn't make detours in his work), only thinking about the comedic or the romantic elements of the story, was a little off-putting. Other than what's not on the screen kind of problem there's the bothering issues of what's on scene such as Anthony Hopkins strange performance as the loud director's play, often shouting all of his lines. Nothing of what he did in here made him look funny, most of the time he's too intolerable to be seen. Calm, enchanted and pleasant as most Brit romantic comedies than to be and meaningful like plays adapted to film usually are, here's an enjoyable picture with many good scenes to be treasured. 6/10

This is truly a cute little little known that I feel deserves more recognition. It appears this movie was made on a low budge but something about that adds a certain warm quality to it. I had a very hard time finding this movie and had to order it from one of the local music stores here. A truly charming look at small theatre. Jeremy Irons has certainly shown that he is more than capable of comedy; something I'd like to see him in more often! The only drawbacks to this movie is the poor sound (and sometimes lighting) quality; I would love to see a DVD release. I would recommend this movie to any fan of Hopkins, Irons, theatre or just anyone looking for something different and light in nature.

With all the high-flying "special effects" movies around these days, this movie is a bare-bones, real-life-like story about real people in a small town and the relationships among them. The cast is fantastic. Jeremy Irons should have gotten an Academy Award for his performance. Anthony Hopkins also turns in an admirable character-driven performance that is just one more example of his outstanding acting ability. There were technical aspects of the photography and sound that could be criticized, but, ignoring those, it is a wonderfully portrayed story. Be sure to watch this film with someone who is a feeling person with a good sense of humor and an interest in different people with different personalities. This movie is one of my all time favorites.

Most brilliant about the script is that "The Beggar's Opera" is being staged and as Jeremy Iron's character progresses through the narrative, many of his experiences mimic MacHeath's -- a phenomenon underlined by the score. So, familiarity with the source material makes for a brilliant movie. It might appear very light without that familiarity - also the twisted ending requires some knowledge of another stock theatre piece. Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Irons and Prunella Scales are utterly thorough - This is the first movie I ever bought, back in the dark pre-internet days when it had to be seriously hunted for. Sound quality is a bit poor and Anthony Hopkins' Welsh accent is a bit thick for those of us who rarely hear one.