Reader Recommends: Chocolat (2000)

Awhile ago I got the recommendation to watch Chocolat, and I found out that my hosts have the DVD here, so it because an easy matter to watch it. Before sitting down to watch it, I had the idea that this was a pretty magical movie about magically powered chocolates that made people fall in love with each other. Sounded pretty odd, but I had to admit that would be an interesting twist on the romance genre. Something I didn't know was that Johnny Depp was in this movie, and he's always so wacky and funny, so that gave me yet another thing to look forward to. Those who have already seen this movie may already see where this is going. For those who haven't, I'll explain after the jump.


Right off the bat, I'll reveal that the story isn't quite what I had thought it would be about. It's actually about a wandering woman looking for a place where she can finally feel like she belongs. This woman is Vianne (Juliette Binoche) and she comes to a small town in France with her young daughter, and they open up a chocolate shop. The main problem is that this is a very strict town with very strict rules, most important among those is to not be different. Can Vianne's unique store and independent ways survive in a town that refuses to let loose?

So it turns out that there's aren't really any "magic" chocolates. Sure there's a few small scenes where it could be implied that they have some kind of power to reinvigorate or inspire a man's interest in a woman, those scenes have very little to do with the actual plot. For the most part they're just really good sweets and that's just about it. I wasn't necessarily disappointed, but it certainly wasn't what I was expecting. I blame the trailers I remember from so long ago for misrepresenting the film.

Vianne played by Juliette Binoche

What I was left with was a fairly standard love story. I didn't find it particularly touching or moving to be honest. I think this was because it focused so much on all the side characters that I didn't get enough character development with Vianne's character to really care about what happened to her. Either than, or I'm just a cold hearted man. Perhaps some combination of the two.

Not that I mean the time spent with the side characters was wasted though. I found many of their stories very interesting, and a few to be actually far more interesting than that of the main character. I found that the side characters were far more colourful and cute and funny than anything that had to do with Vianne.

One of the side characters turns out to be the antagonist of the film, and he's played by Alfred Molina. I instantly recognized him as the guy who played Dr. Octopus in Spider-Man 2. At first he seems like a very nice, and good man, but I knew better! He was probably one of the better characters in the film and I thought he had far more character than the protagonist. He also a very good actor, but I think pretty much everyone, even the kids, did a good job with the acting.

Just look at that face! Alfred Molina is almost always the bad guy!

 Probably the most disappointing aspect of the movie though had to be Johnny Depp. I really have no idea why, other than marketing, they hired him. He doesn't do anything special or unique or significant, and really any pretty faced man could have filled the role fine. He doesn't even show up until halfway through the movie. I was expecting far more out of Depp than what I found here. Very disappointing!

With the first spoken words of the film being "Once upon a time..." I shouldn't have been surprised that this would be a fairly routine romance. I shouldn't have expected so much from it, but I did. Is it a crime to expect movies you've been told are "mind blowing" to be just that? This film is even listed as a "mystery", but I'm still not even sure what the mystery even was that I was supposed to be finding out. If the mystery was just "how does the movie end" then every movie in the history of the world would be a "mystery".

I suppose I could recommend this to people who LOVE romance movies. It does have a lot of interesting and occasionally fun side characters, and they really prettied up Depp for the ladies to ogle too. The story is basically a fairy tale, and so you can expect a fairy tale type ending, which to me just wasn't all that interesting. If this is a fairy tale, then I would have liked a bit more magic while they were at it. I wouldn't say it was an amazing, or even great movie, but it was nice. I guess "sweet" would be the best word to use. Check it out if it's caught your interest, but if not then I don't think there's really a reason to seek it out specifically.