Distributed by
Buena Vista International

Cert:

Running time: 121 minutes

Year: 2000

Released: March 2nd 2001

Sound: Dolby Digital

Widescreen: 1.85:1

Director:

Lasse Hallstrom

Music:

Rachel Portman

Cast:

Vianne Rocher: Juliette Binoche
Anouk Rocher: Victoire Thivisol
Roux: Johnny Depp
Armande Voizin: Judi Dench
Comte de Reynaud: Alfred Molina
Josephine Muscat: Lena Olin
Serge Muscat: Peter Stormare
Caroline Claimont: Carrie-Anne Moss
Aurelien Parent-Koenig: Luc Clairmont
Madame Audel: Leslie Caron

Juliette Binoche is Vianne, Chocolat's central figure, the catalyst for sweeping change in a fiercely self-contained and fervently religious village on the French coast. A wandering free-spirit, with mystical properties inherited from successive generations, she is fated to espouse and continue her family's tradition. She does this through making chocolatey things (augmented with secret special ingredients) for unsuspecting people to consume and be positively liberated by.

Director Lasse Hallstrom, adapting the best-selling novel by Joanne Harris, has created a gentle, dialogue-driven period piece (late-1950s, in this case) which attempts a sense of wonder but can only manage an inoffensive quaintness. A fatally intrusive and prim voice-over throughout the film doesn't help matters, and prevents any of the movie's ethereal qualities from having the desired impact. It sounds more like something you'd come across in a children's fairy story adaptation.

If Chocolat had any hopes of being a mysterious and compelling movie for adults, it sadly loses that particular battle before the first 5 minutes are up. Rachel Portman's score is also far too twee, and not always entirely sympathetic to what's happening onscreen.

That's not to say this particular vision of the story is without merit, it's just difficult to know whether the film was intended to be quite so lightweight and ultimately unsubstantial. Frequently, there's a conflicting tone and atmosphere about Chocolat. Fairytale elements rub shoulders with hints of something darker, more exotic and fulfilling..but neither seem to draw the viewer into their worlds completely.

Juliette pops out at the
Screen Actors Guild Awards...

So, where does it fall short? Not in the casting, that's for sure. An impressive array of talented actors give solid performances, although perhaps only Lena Olin really captures the essence of her role and of the film in general. As Josephine, a free spirit tethered and brow-beaten by a close-knit and grimly traditional village community, she is the character most affected by events in the story, and so therefore also blessed with the richest potential. Judi Dench adds another mildly cantankerous role to her CV, and the only possible weak link in the thespian department is the highly irritating daughter of Juliette Binoche's character, with her imaginary friend (a kangaroo with one bad leg... hmmm).

Binoche and an attractively raggle-taggle Johnny Depp (playing a National Guitar-strumming Irish gypsy) do have a certain chemistry, and light up the last third of the movie, but in truth neither are at their best (one would have expected more mystique from the exquisite french icon, certainly) . Olin, as previously mentioned, shines, while Carrie-Ann Moss takes a sharp left-turn from her catsuited gravity-defying exploits in The Matrix to show another side of her abilities as the repressed widow in the employment of a fastidious, evangelical and all-surveying Mayor (Alfred Molina playing it perhaps just a tad too over-the-top).

In fact, the men in Chocolat are generally too stereotypical for comfort... some minor belly laughs are gleaned from farcical situations, but by all accounts the source material had rather more complexity in its characterisation.

There are films which seem to spring from nowhere, delighting with their unexpected beauty, charm or ingenuity. Then, there are those movies which have so much expectation that the end product never quite appears to be satisfying enough. Chocolat is one such example of the latter phenomenon.

The subtext is made pretty clear... how rejection of free-thinking and adherence to preconceived outlooks is not a good thing, but it's a shame this couldn't have been handled with more subtlety. Nothing about Chocolat quite gels as it might have been anticipated to, although it's still a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours, and some of the scenery is unsurprisingly beautiful.

No-one emerges with either tremendous credit or a damaged reputation, and in this modern-day market of brash, loud, violent popcorn fodder it's certainly offering an alternative. There's just the lingering feeling that Chocolat could have been so much better, so much more enchanting and richer in emotion.

Review copyright © Jason Maloney, 2001.