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FILM CRITIQUE:
"Chocolat" as a movie is a very thin premise fleshed out into a meal that is somewhat single-coursed much like,
one might say, a meal of only chocolat. While the style is there, the taste is not substantial enough to serve the appetite
of a hungry cineaste. Juliette Binoche's character is also not fleshed out to the point where she becomes more than a one-dimensional
character as her angelic qualities are stressed above all as a catalyst for a more humanistic and tolerant approach by the
townspeople.
The only factors adding color to her persona are a very short fling with Roux and the developing problems with her growing
daughter.
This is a small complaint to make, but the movie goes out of its way to promote the fact that the chocolate shop is a
financial success in spite of the best efforts of the mayor to have it boycotted. The truth of this statement totally eludes
me as not one piece of candy is shown as being purchased. There aren't any cash registers in evidence anywhere on the premises,
no suppliers show up to deliver any new ingredients, and Vianne looks like she wouldn't know what a ledger book was if it
fell and hit her on her head. It would be easy to surmise that the shop might collapse in a sea of red ink due to all the
chocolate candies constantly being given away.
Furthermore, hanging all the conflict on the townspeople obsessed with the ritualistic observance of Lent shortchanges
both them and the beauty of the Catholic faith. It does begin to appear that the Catholic church is the only remaining "villain"
left to castigate in our morally relativistic society.
It is possible that seeing this movie before its Oscar nominations had been announced would have been better as my expectations
as to its cinematic excellence might not then have been elevated to such a high level.
I will admit to being a sucker for all period piece romances, of which this movie promises much but offers little. Furthermore,
I have always been entranced by small European villages with their winding, cobbled streets, romantic little buildings, and
clay-tiled roofs ablaze with red in a sea of the green verdancy of the countryside. This particular village perched on a
hilltop in France appears magical from the air. Unfortunately, the charm from the air is contrasted with the overt bigotry
displayed on the ground.
Juliette Binoche's character is so one dimensional as not really to deserve her Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Likewise
with Judi Dench as a Best Supporting Actress for her role as the elderly Armande Voizin. She plays the same Judi Dench that
we have all seen done elsewhere in better and more complex roles. In addition, the movie itself represents a cinematic trifle
that is not filling enough to warrant a Best Picture Oscar nomination.
Actually, my admiration for the best actress in this movie goes to Lena Olin for her rich portrayal of the battered wife,
Josephine Muscat, who goes on to improve her lot in life as Vianne's new assistant chocolatier.
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FILM SYNOPSIS:
A cold wintry wind from the north is blowing chilly flakes of snow through a small hilltop village in central France during
the 1950's. Also carried into this town on the wings of this wind is a mother of unearthly beauty and presence along with
her young daughter, both wearing bright red coats as if to signal visually the contrast they will soon bring to this small
insular town.
The mother, Vianne Rocher(Juliette Binoche) rents a patisserie shop from the aged Armande Voizin (Judi Dench) and then
quickly proceeds to rehabilitate it into the chocolate shop alluded to in the title of this film.
It seems that she has learned the magic of the chocolate arts from her mother, a Mayan priestess with whom her father
had had a doomed relationship. Her Mayan mother had deserted her husband and had then spent the rest of her days in flight
from village to village, never being able to find a home in a plight similar to that of Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman".
As that mother had dragged her young daughter from town to town in a fruitless search for roots, so also that now-grown
daughter, Vianne, seems doomed to be doing the same with her own young daughter.
Vianne's shop becomes the talk of the town. The opening is projected to be during the Lenten season in this heavily Catholic
countryside where everyone is supposed to sacrifice the pleasures of the flesh during this season of religious renewal. The
moral guardian of the town is the Mayor Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina), who is highly affronted by the disrespectful and
scandalous behavior of this new resident.
The mayor's hands, however, are full at the moment with his tutelage of a fresh, young, inexperienced Catholic priest
newly assigned to the village parish. This prevents him from spending as much time as he would have liked in organizing a
boycott of Vianne's shop. The mayor is also lamenting the absence of his wife who is on a seemingly never-ending "visit"
to Italy. It is beginning to appear that this supposed visit has all the appearances of being permanent.
Vianne, a non-practicing Catholic (which further inflames the mayor) throws caution to the wind by opening her Mayan chocolate
shop before the end of Lent. The store is beautifully decorated and is a visual delight to all who pass by, thus adding
to the inviting nature of the sweet aroma of the chocolate wafting from the doors and windows. She also has the magical ability
intuitively to know exactly which chocolate treasure will be exactly the right special treat for each new visitor to the store.
When the local tavern owner cruelly beats his wife, Josephine Muscat (Lena Olin), she runs to Vianne for help and Vianne
shelters her in their upstairs apartment. She subsequently trains her in the art of making chocolate and eventually Josephine
becomes her assistant chocolatier.
The landlady Voizin also begins to stop by regularly for a chocolate treat and it develops that she is estranged from
her daughter and is thus unable to spend any time with her much-loved grandson. Vianne goes to work establishing a bond with
the grandson and uses his desire to be an artist to set up a meeting between the two of them at the shop where he will be
able to draw a portrait of his grandmother.
Problems with the growing "immorality" of the town increase exponentially when a boatload of river rat drifters,
led by an Irish
musician named Roux (Johnny Depp), anchor in the river that flows through the village. Now the Mayor has his hands overflowing
with music and other immoral behavior during the Lenten season just as Vianne finds new romantic interest with Roux. The
situational crisis comes to a head at a birthday party for Armande Voizin that Vianne caters and Roux helps out at as a waiter.
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