Director: Lasse Hallstrom
Starring: Juliette Binoche,Lena Olin,Johnny Depp,Judi Dench,Alfred Molina
Chocolat tells the magical tale of a woman and her daughter who blow into
a little town like a spring breeze and transform the citizens with their warmth,
charm, and chocolate shop. I hate magical tales.
This is an entirely mediocre movie that should never have been nominated for
a Best Picture Oscar. It seems innocuous enough, and the pedigree is good. Lasse
Hallstrom is a fine director. Juliette Binoche is a beautiful woman and a very
good actress. (So is Lasse’s wife, Lena Olin, but she’s made to look
terribly ugly here - Oscar nomination anyone? Best Make-Up should definitely go
to whoever managed to make Lena Olin look ugly.) That Dame, Judi Dench, is in
the movie. Alfred Molina (remember, the drug dealer who loved “Sister
Christian” in Boogie Nights?) is also a great actor, as is Johnny Depp,
in a smallish role. How did they go wrong? Oh, I guess I didn’t mention the
story yet.
What’s really foul about Chocolat is that it purports to deliver a
message: it’s okay to be non-conformist and sensual, and we should be tolerant
of others. A fine message that I can stand behind. Except…. except in this
movie being non-conformist means drinking hot chocolate, or helping a woman in
distress, or telling dirty stories, or playing guitar and dancing under the
moonlight, as Lena, Juliette, Judi, and Johnny do. These are all wonderful
things to do, but hardly rebellious. The trouble is, the line to cross to be a
sensual and “good person” is so constrictive in this town that smiling at
strangers registers as a moral victory.
Molina plays a repressed and influential Count, who, in turn, represses the
rest of the town with his stern and rigid morality. At one point the count
attempts to reform an abusive husband. It’s told as a Frankenstein story,
crossed with A Clockwork Orange, but when you think about it, that act is
the most courageous and rebellious in the movie. That he fails is a tragedy, but
the attempt is heroic. (He fails, by the way, because he is not working on inner
sensuality, the way the chocolatier does, but instead on dogma. Of course, every
time the husband gets in touch with his inner feelings, he hits someone -
shouldn’t repressive good manners count for something?) By the end of the
movie, I was tired of the protagonists and rooting for the poor count.
Don’t get me wrong, there are good things about the movie. Johnny Depp
always brings a spark to the screen, and there is chemistry between him and
Juliette Binoche. The scenes of chocolate making (and eating) are luscious and
made me imagine I could smell the cocoa. And the performances are uniformly good
(one of my favorite bit parts was the priest). But don’t think too hard about
what the movie is trying to say and how manipulative it is.
As a counterpoint, I feel obliged to let you know that my girlfriend loved
the movie (probably would have liked it more if it was called Johnny Depp
covered in Chocolat), as did her roommate, and even the roommate’s
boyfriend. My take on the film is the minority opinion of a bitter realist who
takes things too seriously. I need a Twix bar.
Warning: A kangaroo was humiliated into performing in this movie
