Hunky Dory

It is not hunky dory at all. Instead, it is half-baked and tiresome.

Golden-hued, feel-good treacle, the sort that the U.K. has tried to export ever since Billy Elliot.

The golden-hued cinematography (a filming clich that really needs to be retired) and the sometimes slack direction by Marc Evans are minuses ...

At various moments this endearing but sudsy movie, which spills all over the place, evokes "High School Musical," "Glee" and "Billy Elliot."

Hunky Dory flits along blithely from number to transporting musical number until it ends - with a sigh - and dodges any authentic engagement with its own ideas.

Enthusiasm carries the day in this paint-by-numbers period tale, which is just charming enough to coast on its own clichs.

Isn't trying to be anything more than it simply is, a kindhearted film about a friendly, progressive minded teacher helping kids explore emotions through art.

The musical performances lack the energy and gloss of shows like Glee, but what you see here is more like what you'd experience at an average high school musical.

A period piece spin on Glee, as filtered through the gauzy lens of underclass-artistic-exuberance that's plagued a subset of comedic-leaning British imports ever since Billy Elliot.

A lyrically and emotionally intense coming of age tale. Touching on a teacher's struggle against the educational establishment in a search for the liberating musical self-expression of her students.