Rating: 
Summary: Loved it, loved it, loved it!
Review: I loved everything about this movie. It is visually beautiful to watch, and is brilliantly acted and directed. I was both moved and delighted throughout its entirety. The messages this movie delivers are in my opinion dead on!
Rating: 
Summary: Magical!
Review: In a small self-righteous village in France, where everyone goes to church and tries to uphold an appearance of morality and virtues, a newcomer arrives and opens a chocolate shop. Vianne is a little different than everyone else because she "does not attend church" and she wears red shoes when "all the other mommies wear black shoes." The mayor is angered because she opens the shop just as the Lent season begins and brings into town a little bit of temptation. Vianne brings a little bit of magic to everyone in this film, showing that big things really do come from small bites. Sometimes it is the "heathen" that brings good change into a town that desperately needed it, especially when that same town was inhibited from the pleasures of life by their own doing. The village needed a little "pick-me-up" and Vianne and her chocolate shop is just what the doctor ordered. Johnny Depp has a smaller role in this movie as Roux, a charming "riverrat" who shows up just in time to show Vianne that subconsciously she has something inside of her that needs awakened, just as she has helped everyone else awaken. This movie made me laugh and it made me cry. It is truly a memorable movie that will warm everyone's heart and send a little magic their way. Be sure to have a box of chocolates nearby while watching the film!
Rating: 
Summary: Cute but that's about it!
Review: People raved about this movie and I sat there and felt like I missed something. It was a good story line. That acting was okay. Some of the characters weren't really devolped very well. It was disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: A Lovely Film
Review: For those who saw this movie as anti-Christian, I say rubbish! Those people are just as close-minded as the townspeople in the movie. It is much more about old-fashioned, sad, and narrow-minded people learning about happiness, tolerance, and acceptance of the differences in people. Chocolat is a magical, enchanting film. The characters and the actors who play them are wonderful. If you are a Johhny Depp fan, you may be disappointed that his part is actually quite small, but he is positively gorgeous and perfect in this character.
Rating:
Summary: Come on people, it's just a movie...
Review: I'm not sure why some people hate this film so much. It's just a movie! It's entertainment, not a history lesson!
This is a great movie with lots of SYMBOLISM. I don't believe the writer actually thought that things, in 1959, happened in the way they did in the movie. It's just a "fairy tale" of sorts. I highly doubt it was written to make Catholics look evil and that Lent is torture. I am Catholic and was not offended in any way. If one looks into this movie a bit deeper, you will see lots of hidden symbolism and clever lessons to be learned. Don't judge this film just by what you see. It will then seem very differrent to you.
Rating:
Summary: I love this movie
Review: As a Catholic, I viewed this movie somewhat differently than a few other reviewers here.As the movie opened, we see this little French town that is not so much "sleepy" (a word commonly used to describe little backwater hamlets) as it is just plain tired: There is no joy of the Lord in this place, no delight in worshiping Him. Everything is done not for the spiritual pleasure of serving the Lord or out of a sense of duty to the One Who died for us, but rather to keep from being frowned at by the rigid, uptight Comte. I mean, who are the people supposed to be serving? The Comte or the Christ? Enter Viane, who has some Issues. She is headstrong and defiant, a person who has made mistakes and missteps in her life. But she is not a bad person -- she's just....lost. But in this little French village, she seems to find what she's been looking for. Love. A sense of place. Some stability for herself and her daughter. Some good, strong friends. In the beginning, she helps them get on their feet -- in the end, they help her regain her own footing. The whole village changes. They stop being so hidebound, so morose, so dull and lacking in love. They begin to experience joy. The bossy Comte is taken down a peg or two and becomes, actually, a likeable person. The young priest asserts himself as the spiritual leader of his parish. The one utterly benighted villager is banished. Several marriages are strengthened and two matches are made, one being Viane and her river rat. Viane's daughter is finally feels peace and security and her kangaroo can hop away. My question about this movie is this: If you don't have a loving, forgiving heart, does it really matter if you don't eat chocolate during Lent? To obey is better than sacrifice, the Holy Word tells us. Jesus Himself called the Pharisees who stuck to the letter of the law, yet had no love in their hearts "whited sepulchers, polished and beautiful on the outside, but on the inside full of dead men's bones." This movie, this fairy tale-in-cinema, shows how Viane and this village wake up to what is real about God and His love for us. The movie ends at the very beginning of their pilgrimage. I hope they all found their way of rest and peace inside His Sacred Heart.
Rating: 
Summary: Deception
Review: This is illustrative of Hollywood's penchant to influence against truth of Christianity. Here metaphorically with mysterious woman/child blowing into town on wind with secret chocolat. Then resultant contest with local priest/count over morality. Weak projection of true Christian morality and belief. Redeeming beautiful cinematography and musical score. Best characterized by this passage from Psalm 1: "The wicked are not so,but are like chaff that the wind drives away."
Rating: 
Summary: Not a good film
Review: I reviewed this film earlier and the review never posted, so I wrote another. Now however both have posted. In the interest of fairness I raise it to two stars (the average) even though I think it deserves only one. You can edit the text of your reviews on Amazon but you can't get rid of the review itself, or I'd do that. As I said in my original review this film seems to think of itself as a lighthearted tale, but only ignorance or a total lack of respect for Catholics could enable such a sentiment. The best way I can put it into context for people who don't get what I'm saying here is, imagine a story about a woman who moves
to a small JEWISH village and opens a pork chop shop on a high Jewish holiday. Imagine now that the movie puts forth the notion that this woman is all sweetness and light, a bringer of good, of progressive thought, and that the villagers and the town's rabbi are backward dolts. That's this movie in a nutshell, though it focuses on Catholics rather than Jews.
Rating:
Summary: Trite
Review: A film in which a woman comes to town and tries to tempt Catholic away from observing Lent. Somehow this is supposed to be a positive thing. I don't get it.
Rating:
Summary: Shallow, predictable
Review: This is a shallow, predictable, by-the-numbers film. Also, I wonder how it would have been received if it wasn't about a woman opening a chocolate store during Lent in a Catholic town, but rather about a woman opening a pork chop restaurant in a Jewish town during Yom Kippur. It would have been denounced that's what would have happened. But since it's Catholics it's okay to trounce them. Rather than cute, the movie is predictable and rather steeped in ignorance.
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