Fine voices of a certain age

Young@Heart (PG) 3½ stars Limited release NORTHAMPTON, a town of about 30,000 residents in the US state of Massachusetts, is home to Young@Heart, a choir composed of elderly performers with an average age of 80.

One of the stars of Young@Heart

Young@Heart (PG) 3½ stars Limited release NORTHAMPTON, a town of about 30,000 residents in the US state of Massachusetts, is home to Young@Heart, a choir composed of elderly performers with an average age of 80.

The choir has been in existence for 25 years and the unexpected thing is that chorus director Bob Cilman, instead of helping these retirees perform the sort of song you might expect of people their age (Irving Berlin or George Gershwin perhaps), encourages them to attempt more contemporary work, including songs by the Clash and Sonic Youth.

Young@Heart is on one level an affectionate study of a tenacious group of senior citizens, all of them obviously devoted to working together and perfecting their performance. The hours of rehearsal are long and Cilman is a stern taskmaster who rarely seems to make allowance for the ages of his performers. But when British-born Eileen Hall sings Should I Stay or Should I Go by the Clash, the result is pretty amazing, and when the choir performs at a prison just after one of their leading members has died, it's a genuinely moving experience.

This British-made documentary follows members of the choir as they rehearse for their next significant public appearance, highlighting some of the more distinctive members of the group.

Although it's no surprise, given the ages of the people involved, that not all of them make it through to the big event, it nonetheless comes as a jolt when someone you've connected with quite closely loses the battle.

It's a pity that director Stephen Walker, who also narrates, imposes so much of himself on the material, asking at times the most insensitive questions. He should have allowed the brave and determined members of Young@Heart to speak for themselves.