CHOCOLAT
2000

February 4, 2001

Century Union City

-->Directed by Lasse Hallstrom [The Cider House Rules, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Once Around, My Life As A Dog]
-->Written by Joanne Harris and Robert Nelson Jacobs
-->Vianne Rocher.....Juliette Binoche [The English Patient, The Horseman On The Roof, Three Colors: Red, Three Colors: White, Three Colors: Blue, Damage, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being]
-->Josephine Muscat.....Lena Olin [The Cider House Rules, Romeo Is Bleeding, Havana, Enemies: A Love Story, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, Fanny And Alexander]
-->Roux.....Johnny Depp [Sleepy Hollow, Donnie Brasco, Nick Of Time, Dead Man, Don Juan DeMarco, Ed Wood, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Benny & Joon, Edward Scissorhands, 21 Jump Street, Platoon, A Nightmare On Elm Street]
-->Amande Voizin.....Judi Dench [Shakespeare In Love, Mrs. Brown, Henry V, A Room With A View]
-->Comte de Reynaud.....Alfred Molina [Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Dead Man, The Perez Family, Maverick, Enchanted April, Raiders Of The Lost Ark]
-->Serge Muscat.....Peter Stormare [Armageddon, Mercury Rising, The Big Lebowski, Playing God, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Fargo, Damage, Awakenings]
-->Caroline Claimont.....Carrie-Anne Moss [The Matrix]

Quaint French village is turned upside down by unconventional woman who opens a chocolate shop.

This film is very light and sweet, much like its namesake. With the exception of the shop owner played by Binoche, every other character is pretty much a cardboard cutout. The mayor is a traditionalist. The priest is a bumbling kid. There is the drunk guy, the battered wife, the crusty old grandmother. In spite of this, it is fun to watch and is full of attractive people. Binoche seems to get more good-looking with age and Johnny Depp is definitely not hard to look at. Depp plays an Irish gypsy who floats down the river to the village and is even more ostracized than Binoche is. The fact that a town would consider a chocolate shop owned by a non-churchgoer as the epitome of evil is something you have to look past to enjoy this movie. Standouts include Carrie-Anne Moss who proves she's more than just the vinyl-clad Matrix ass-kicker and Victoire Thivisol who plays Binoche's daughter who was the 4-year-old Ponette in that great film. We all know everything is going to work out at the end, so just sit back and enjoy it. See if the crowd you see it with is as idiotic as mine. Films like this make everyone feel smart. Every twist is telegraphed. I heard people shouting things that a blind man would have seen coming miles away. But people are dumb all over. Have fun at this one.