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Summary: "Chocolat" is a tale about a
mysterious woman who comes to live in a small provincial town in
France. Moving in with just her young daughter, she sets up a
chocolatier where she befriends some townsfolk and prescribes her chocolate
delights to ease their daily worries and apprehensions. Not everything
is as sweet as it seems though, as the mayor views her as being evil and
schemes to turn the townsfolk against her. Will chocolate conquer
all? Or will it melt and force the chocolatier to move on?
Despite solid performances, I didn't enjoy this movie as much as I had hoped or
expected. Perhaps I was missing some chocolate delights.
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The Story
Juliette Binoche stars as Vianne in this drama about
provincial life in a small traditional French town. Vianne is a
woman who mysteriously comes to town with her young daughter and sets up a
chocolatier just weeks before Lent, a time of self-sacrifice and fasting for
Christians. The mayor frowns upon this
mysterious stranger, who is an atheist and therefore does not attend mass on
Sundays. This over-controlling and highly influential mayor then
schemes to convince his fellow townsfolk that Vianne is evil.
Meanwhile, Vianne minds her own business, and befriends a handful of people and
helps them through the rough edges in the lives by prescribing certain
selections of her very own chocolate delights.
"Chocolat" uncannily reminds me of Sarah
Michelle Gellar's "Simply Irresistible", which is also culinary-themed, but I
enjoyed "Simply Irresistible" much more thoroughly than "Chocolat".
The performance by Juliette Binoche was good, but I did not think it was
deserving of an Oscar nomination. Johnny Depp's performance was also
good, but not among his best work. Notable performances instead came from the likes of Judi
Dench, Lena Olin, and Carrie-Anne Moss. Though performances were
good pretty much across the board, the movie felt quite slow through many
parts and the story didn't seem to pull together very well. Chances are
you may enjoy this movie, after all it won critical acclaim. But
"Chocolat" didn't work too well for me. I guess I am still
searching for my favorite confection. 
The Extras
"Chocolat" contains the following bonus
materials:
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Audio commentary with director Lasse Hallstrom and
producers David Brown, Kit Golden and Leslie Holleran.
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"The Making of Chocolat" featurette
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"The Costumes of Chocolat" featurette
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Production design featurette
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Deleted scenes: the seven deleted scenes are entitled
"Comte Collects Rent", "Are we going to move
again?", "Milking the Cow", "Cat Food", "Boule
Game", "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow", and "Armando's
Letter"
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Sneak Peeks: theatrical trailers of "The Cider
House Rules", "Malèna",
"Bounce", "The Yards",
and Shakespeare in Love"
There's quite enough bonus materials here to keep the
average film buff satisfied.
Video & Audio
The image quality of this anamorphic
widescreen DVD is very good, though the picture seem slightly soft at
times. The colors are accurate and
saturated, while shadow detail is very good. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 soundtrack is well balanced, though the use of the surround
channels is somewhat conservative.
The dialogue comes across crystal clear, and the musical score is vibrant.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony KV-27V66
27" TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony
STR-V444ES A/V receiver, NHT 2.1 as left/right main speakers, NHT 1.1C center channel speaker, NHT
SuperZero as surround speakers, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable XP speaker
wires, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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United We Stand
