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CHOCOLAT Send This Review to a Friend
A tasty enough bonbon, "Chocolat" pits the desire for pleasure against those who fear unleashing hungers that threaten repressive efforts to preserve puritanical ideas of morality. It is somewhat of a fable about what happens when sensuality invades a sleepy French village. The catalyst is a traveler, Vianne Rocher, played by the beautiful Juliette Binoche, who arrives with her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol) and opens a chocolate shop during Lent. Her confections soon have a mouth-watering effect on some of the locals, much to the fury on the part of the controlling, up-tight Comte de Reynaud, played self-righteously Alfred Molina.
Toss in other ingredients that include a brutalized wife (Lena Olin), her nasty husband (Peter Stormare), an elderly libertine (Judi Dench) and her daughter (Carrie-Anne Moss). Enter a riverboat gypsy (Johnny Depp), who stimulates Vianne's romantic instincts.
Although the mixture is entertaining on certain level, something seems missing. The film is strangely disembodied. The problem is that it begs to be a French film in French instead of in English directed by a Scandinavian, Lasse Hallstrom. One can never truly believe this is happening in a French village, and the characters are never sufficiently convincing as to who they are supposed to be. Without the needed sense of authenticity, "Chocolat" doesn't rise above a mildly enjoyable level. For many that will be enough. A Miramax Films release.
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