Driven by fate, Vianne (Binoche) drifts into a tranquil French village with her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol, from Ponette) in the winter of 1959. Her newly opened chocolatier is a source of attraction and fear, since Vianne's ability to revive the villagers' passions threatens to disrupt their repressive traditions. The pious mayor (Alfred Molina) sees Vianne as the enemy, and his war against her peaks with the arrival of "river rats" led by Roux (Depp), whose attraction to Vianne is immediate and reciprocal. Splendid subplots involve a battered wife (Lena Olin), a village elder (Judi Dench), and her estranged daughter (Carrie-Anne Moss), and while the film's broader strokes may be regrettable (if not for Molina's rich performance, the mayor would be a caricature), its subtleties are often sublime. Chocolat reminds you of life's simple pleasures and invites you to enjoy them. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description
A woman and her daughter open a chocolate shop in a small french village that shakes up the rigid morality of the community. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 01/11/2008 Starring: Alfred Molina Juliette Binoche Run time: 105 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Lasse Hallstrom

The film begins with a north wind blowing Vianne (Juliette Binoche) and her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol) into a small French village at the very beginning of Lent, that pre-Easter period of time, which, in the Catholic liturgy, is dedicated to prayer and physical self-denial. It's not a good time for Vianne, an apparent non-Christian, to open up a chocolate shop across the town square from the church. But, she does so anyway, much to the dismay of the village mayor, the Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina). Reynaud is puritanically determined to shut the shop down, and Vianne is equally determined to keep it open. An irresistible force meets an immovable object.

CHOCOLAT, both the book and movie, is a whimsical comedy that blossoms as Lent progresses, and Vianne's shop becomes a place of healing and sanctuary for several of the town's troubled residents. Because Vianne's store is seen (by the local Church establishment) as diametrically opposed to the spirit of the season, the story can also be taken as a gentle fable of conflict between Christianity and paganism.

Juliette Binoche is exquisite in her role. (I think I'm in love.) Judi Dench is her usual superb best as Armande, an aged widow deprived of her grandson's company by an over-protective mother, Armande's own daughter (Carrie-Anne Moss). There's also a small role played by Leslie Caron. (Where's she been in recent years?) And Alfred Molina is positively brilliant as the uptight mayor, so dominant that he personally writes the Sunday sermons to be delivered by the local pastor, Fr. Henri, apparently only recently ordained and much in fear of the Comte. Johnny Depp has an engaging role as one member of a band of despised river gypsies just floating through.

One very good reason why CHOCOLAT the film is better than CHOCOLAT the book is the added dimension of visualization which the former imparts to several elements of the storyline, specifically the mysterious wind that blew our heroine into town, Anouk's pet Pantoufle, the delectable chocolates themselves (seductively arrayed in the shop window), and the climax of the conflict between Vianne and the Comte.

CHOCOLAT the film is one that will have the audience leaving the theater feeling good, and maybe wishing for a cup of Vianne's hot chocolate with a pinch of cayenne pepper. I can't recommend this cinematic gem enough.


A Gentle Tale of Lent and Chocolate   November 11, 2004
 41 out of 47 found this review helpful

This adaptation of Joanne Harris's novel lacks the seductive charm and magic of the original, but it succeeds on its own as a quiet film about a French village rife with personal crises. When the mysterious Vianne (Juliette Binoche) and her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol), dressed in red capes, arrive in town on a day the wind from the North gusts open the church doors, interrupting the sermon on the first day of Lent, something begins to stir. The pious mayor (Alfred Molina) knows it better than anyone. Vianne opens a chocolaterie, serving up exotic confections designed to bring out the best in people, and relationships in the grim town shift. Vianne seems immune to her own magic - until a band of gypsies and their leader Roux (Johnny Depp) set up camp on the edge of town.

Director Lasse Hallstrom excels in his evocation of a small French village in 1959 and the people inhabiting it. Despite its Swedish director, British author, and international cast, this film feels authentically French. Its rhythms are mostly gentle, and its focus is on character rather than an intricate plot. Juliette Binoche turns in a fine performance, even though her smile at times seems too vapid and easy for such a complicated character. Judi Dench makes a memorable appearance as Vianne's landlady, a crotchety but spirited old woman who is estranged from her uptight daughter (Carrie-Anne Moss) and her grandson. John Wood and Lena Olin also turn in strong supporting roles.

Art house film addicts will want to see this, but more mainstream viewers may be bored. Recommended for viewers who enjoy the leisurely unfolding of a quiet drama.


A great emotional lift.   October 2, 2001
 30 out of 30 found this review helpful

Lasse Hallstrom's film version of the Joanne Harris' novel Chocolat is as delightful a confection as were the heroines' chocolate creations themselves. The plot is intricate and intriguing, carrying the viewer through the emotional transformations of each of the main characters. In a sleepy medieval French town where life has assumed a repressive structure that has created an emotionally frozen and empty life for even the most highly placed members of its society, the heroine Vianne and her daughter arrive to set up a chocolate shop. With her wonderfully concocted sweets she manages to liberate some of the denizens of the town, revealing their potential for greater happiness. The story has a sense of myth, fantasy, and fairytale about it that leaves the viewer with a feeling of personal satisfaction.

This is a film full of strong female performers. Judi Dench is especially wonderful as a curmudgeonly elderly woman estranged from her daughter and forbidden to see her grandson. Juliette Binoche does a fine job as the heroine. She is as fragile and seductive as Monroe in some scenes and as forceful and independent as Bacall in others. Lena Olin is wonderful as the abused wife who rises from the confusion and ashes of her own ruined personality like a phoenix under the influence of the heroine.

This is one of the best movies I've seen in a ling while, and I expect to order and read the book upon which it was based--something I rarely do.


Nonsensical liberal fantasy run amok   September 10, 2001
 27 out of 53 found this review helpful

Chocolat is awful. Juliette Binoche stars in the film (which gives her next to nothing to do), which is sort of "Where the Heart Is..." meets "The Full Monty." It's a completely offensive liberal fantasy. The basic plot is that a woman comes to a small town in 50's France, and through the power of her chocolate making, changes their outlook on lives. The problem with this is that you need to share its viewpoint, which is that all of the townspeople are stupid & blindly follow their way of life & religion since they don't know any better.

The film treats Catholicism as folly. I'm not Catholic, but I was still offended. It takes place during Lent. Binoche's character tempts all of the characters to break their Lenten vows with her chocolate, and this is seen as a good thing. She doesn't attend church & seems to callously brush aside their views on religion. Basically her character's goal comes at the cost of the town's way of life, and we're expected to applaud that. I just want to warn you that the film, while seemingly sweet, is incredibly subversive in the worst way. It manipulates the audience into accepting the offensive views it has, and then tries to beautify its ugly ideas with mood lighting.

If you watch the film with any sort of rational mind at all, you can't help but be offended. I'm up for magic realism as much as the next person, but this film doesn't work at all. I didn't read the book, but the film is so flimsy. For example, it doesn't explain why the chocolates have the effects they do at all. There's one flashback in which Binoche explains the Indians believed cocoa beans make people lose all their inhibitions. That's well & good, but I don't lose all inhibition when I eat a Hershey's bar. There is obviously something different about HER chocolate and the film does nothing to explain it.

What I had a huge problem with though were its attitudes toward society. It's one of those movies that celebrates vagrants at the expense of people who are settled down in life, but then expects us to be happy when the main vagrants in the story all decide to settle down at the end. I don't mind that the film condemns the church & the town's people so much as that it expects us to be happy when it betrays itself and decides these are good things.

Also problematic is Judi Dench's character. She is presented as a fellow outcast from the town, but she is obviously influenced by what her daughter (the mayor's loyal assisstant) thinks of her. The film definitely wants to be subversive & conformist at the same time, and you simply can't. The condescending way it treats the townspeople in and the pedestal it places Binoche & Depp on both are ridiculous. The film is a total failure (though I'm sure people who don't much think about what they're watching are apt to enjoy it.)


A story of enlightment that hardly ever faults   April 8, 2001
 24 out of 27 found this review helpful

Chocolat

Score: 83/100

"That day, the towners not only heard a song of church, but an enlightening of the spirit," is a memorable line said late in the magical film that is Chocolat. The quote in the film kind of rings out to the entire movie - the day that you see Chocolat, it won't just be any movie, it'll be an enlightening, refreshing experience that you're sure to like.

1960, small town France. Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche) and her pre-teen daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol) move into town and open a chocolate shop just as lent is beginning. The town's small-minded mayor can't accept this and does his best to shut her down, but her warm personality and incredible chocolates manage to win over many townsfolk. Things get shaken up even more when a group of river drifters, led by Roux (Johnny Depp), stop into town (to the even greater distress of the mayor) and Vianne takes up with him. Meanwhile, she's been helping Josephine (Lena Olin) out of her abusive marriage and her equally freethinking landlord, Amande Voisin (Judi Dench) get together with her grandson, Luc (Aurelien Parent-Koeing), whose mother doesn't approve of Amande's ways.

The film is overflowing with it's share of brains and complete maturity throughout the character's hard situations. The actors all play these interesting people to absolute perfection, Juliette Binoche shines brighter than she ever has as the eager Vianne, and Judi Dench is her classical self as Armande. Also, actors that didn't get nominated for Academy Awards (Binoche and Dench did) also put in heaps of effort, Lena Olin is believable and eye-widening as Josephine and Johnny Depp as Roux...well, his coolness just goes without saying. The film has a rich and tasty feel to it, you can almost taste the chocolate Vianne is cooking, oh yes...when the cameramen allow the eye of the camera to go on the silky chocolate swishing through the cooking objects and breaking on the bowl, wow, I tell ya, you better be prepared to drool not only at the film and the chocolate, but it's ingredients and content.

Chocolat is a greatly intriguing piece of work, one that is endlessly delightful, and only contains a pinch of a fault.