Rating: 
Summary: Good movie!
Review: Moved kind of slowly. Wierd ending. But all in all it was a good movie. I suggest buying it!
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth the two hours of your life.
Review: Heavy-handed dreck about a woman who brings "enlightenment" (through libertine ideas and the metaphor of confections) to the supposedly close-minded rubes of a small French village. I watched it for the scenery, but even that small hope went largely unsatisfied. I suppose it's a wonderful little fable for those who were born in the 60's and got stuck in perpetual adolescence.
Rating: 
Summary: A Warm and Wonderful Movie.
Review: This had to be one of the years' best movies. I just loved it, and Johnny Depp was such a pleasent surprise. It's a feel good movie, that will make you glad that you decided to watch it.
Rating:
Summary: Chocolate reforms the church!
Review: This is an American movie directed by Swedish born director Lasse Hallstrom (The Cider House Rules, 1999; Something to Talk About, 1995), set in France with a distinct French flavor. The cast, headed by the very talented Juliette Binoche as Vianne Rocher, a wandering proprietress of chocolate, is highly accomplished and very much worth watching. Judi Dench has a substantial role as the cranky Armande, and Johnny Depp makes a belated appearance as Binoche's love interest, Roux, the River Rat. Alfred Molina plays the small town's semi-fascist Catholic mayor, Comte Paul de Reynaud. With his slicked-back, straight black hair and the precise black mustache and his imposing countenance, one is somehow reminded of Count Dracula. Leslie Caron (An American in Paris, 1951; The L-Shaped Room, 1963), now in her seventies, has a small part as the widow Madame Audel. Carrie Anne-Moss of Matrix fame (but I recall her most memorably in Memento, 2000) plays Armande's strait-laced and estranged daughter. Noteworthy is the captivating Victoire Thivisol as Anouk Rocher, Vianne's nine-year-old daughter. Thivisol won the best actress award at the Venice Film Festival in 1996 for her work as a four-year-old (!) in Ponette (1996). She is surely the youngest actor ever to win such an award. Chocolat is also a kind of modern Dionysian morality tale in reverse with the Catholic church and small town narrow-mindedness as the bad guys. It gets more than a bit sappy at times, and the unrelenting celebration of outsiders and non-conformists is wearisome and sorely tried my patience throughout. However, just as is the case with chocolate with its uplifting qualities amidst the lure to overindulgence, the good surely outweighs the bad. Hallstrom is an ambitious director who is comfortable playing to an adult feminist audience. He attempts the complex and the unlikely. Here, there is more than the usual Hollywood seduction of the intended audience. There is underneath the surface a strong symbolic presence, giving the story a kind of resonating, fairy tale existence. Chocolate of course serves as the Dionysian wine, but it is also a semi-addictive substance from a tropical American plant, the cacao, rich in sumptuous oils and theobromine, a heart and general nervous system stimulant similar to caffeine. Cocoa was the first stimulant drink to break the unrelenting hold of beer and wine on the European palate. It was quickly followed by coffee and tea. Prior to the rise of these cerebral drinks, it was commonplace for Europeans to drink beer for breakfast, and indeed to drink beer and wine throughout the day. Many believe that caffeine was a handmaiden of the Renaissance, which of course led to the eventual weakening of the hold of the Roman Catholic church. Vianne, who is the daughter of a central American mother and a European father, represents the shamanism of the New World, leading the populace away from the narrow confines of the medieval mentality with her irresistible confections made with the seed of Theoboma cacao. The problem with the movie, and the reason it did not achieve a more wide-spread acclaim, lay not only with its cloyingly unbalanced feminist viewpoint and its anti-Catholicism, but with the difficulty Binoche (and Hallstrom) had with her complex role. Her character is a woman who wants desperately to find a place in society and to be accepted by the petite bourgeoisie while maintaining her personal sense of value (and her red shoes!). She is, in a sense, a gypsy fortune teller (recall the spinning plates) who longs to be a pillar of the community. She is worldly wise, kind and forgiving, but partly a shopkeeper with a shopkeeper's need to set down roots. She is also a Mayan princess born to wander with the sly wind that ushers her about. So, underneath all else, this is a story about finding a home. Because Vianne is frequently attacked for her lifestyle while being the sort of person who does not return insult with insult, Binoche is reduced in many scenes to a kind of tolerant, slightly superior, patient smile that becomes wearying. It is only when Johnny Depp appears that we see the real Juliette Binoche and a true indication of her ability. Incidentally Depp is excellent as a gypsy musician who understands himself and his place as a counter balance to a conservative society. He is an inspiration to Vianne because he alone is not transparent to her; she only discovers his "favorite" chocolate by happenstance after two wrong guesses. Depp also serves to save this film from the near monotony of inadequate males and dissatisfied females. When he appears I can almost hear the audience sigh. Incidentally, you might want to compare this to Babette's Feast (1987) in which the narrow-minded and in need of liberation are northern Protestants, while the woman with the tempting goodies is an exiled Catholic chef from France. If Hallstrom had taken a clue from Gabriel Axel, who directed Babette's Feast, and followed a more objective and balanced treatment, Chocolat might have been a great movie. As it is, it is a very interesting one, and one you're not likely to forget or to feel neutral about.
Rating: 
Summary: Director Again Demolishes Strawman
Review: What could have been a cute, enjoyable movie is reduced to ashes by the obvious stereotypes and the silly slapstick posturing. Let's see -- Roman Catholicism is bad, so let's create a caricature of it to demolish; fathers are bad, so let's create a wonderful Mom-only family to raise a little girl; neighbors are bad and strangers are good, so let's create some unpleasant neighbors (wife-beater) and some attractive strangers; moderation and self-control are bad, so let's cast our best actress as an out-of-control diabetic on a binge. How silly!!
Rating:
Summary: very sweet & lovely
Review: i honestly didn't think this movie was worth watching, but i rented it anyway. it's not what i expected, it's really sweet and cute. i love how everyone just adored her chocolate. it's a movie for girls, a must see.
Rating:
Summary: True to France
Review: I was in France during the winter months and loved it.... the movie depicts the winds and landscape wonderfully. It's a great reminder of my trip. I wish though that you could select French as a spoken language on the DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: Just O.K.
Review: Not as good as I hoped. Let me preface my review with the cuation that this is not the sort of movie I ususally like or watch. However, I thought I would give it a try becuase I really like the actors and it was nominated for so many awards. The english patient isn't my type of movie, but i gave it a shot becuase it won so many awards and i had liked it, so i hoped that might be the case this time. However, (despite the fact that Depp is in it!) this movie was rather lukewarm. It seemed somewhat mundane and unfocused. I saw it maybe half a year ago and nothing jumps out at me about it. It's pretty forgetable. So, if you like sentimental romances, you might like this. If you like something that has a good plot and a backbone, don't go there.
Rating:
Summary: Ummm...
Review: I liked this movie better when it was called "Footloose." It wasn't nearly as pretentious.
Rating:
Summary: Just a GREAT movie.
Review: Juliette Binoche,,,,now she is an actress. She's beautiful, sincere, very believable and most important she has talent! Something american actors and hollywood knows nothing about. But i digress,,,,,This movie has a great story, great music, great visuals, a few surprises, an actress from the past and the movie flys by because you get so involved in the story. The transfer to DVD is also very good. The sound is strong and highlights the movie perfectly. Well done! I was impressed.
|
