"Chocolat"

Chocolat. A delightfully delicious film that will make your mouth water and your hidden passions emerge. Or so the main character would hope. The story takes place in a small town in France where the people practice a Puritan style of life, specifically during Lent, cutting themselves off from any kind of pleasure, including the pleasure of Chocolate. In comes a woman and her daughter who help awaken some of the townsfolk to what they have been missing. One humorous example is a woman who finds that a specific type of chocolate helps awaken her husband's lack of passion.

Then we have Alfred Molina, the mayor of this town and the one most resistant to enjoying the passion of Chocolate. He gives a brilliant performance as does Judi Dench and Johnny Depp, who is quite nice to look at I might add.

The message of the film is summed up quite nicely at the end, an appropriate place I suppose, where the young minister speaks about how we shouldn't focus on what we shouldn't do and who we shouldn't include, but rather on what new things we can experience and who we can include in our lives. The character says it much better than I, but overall this is a very enjoyable film that will leave you searching in the cupboards for some dark chocolate to indulge in far after the film is through.

-Bethany


Chocolat is in the genre of films that I tend not to enjoy watching, but do appreciate greatly once I sit down and invest myself in it.  I suppose I would classify it as a drama, but it is one that has a deal of humor (dark though it often is,) and despite my misgivings, I find myself appreciating much that this film has to offer.  Five academy award nominations probably could have given me a clue.

'Chocolat' is the story of a little french village trying to become unstuck from the middle ages, and finding its own Renaissance through chocolate.  This chocolate is brought by a traveling choclatier Vianne, and her lovable daughter.  The duo soon find themselves at odds with the strict and overbearing Mayor of the town (played brilliantly by Alfred Molina) but they also find allies in a crotchety old French grandmother (played by Judi Dench,) and the abused wife of the town's bar owner.

Chocolat is a story that leaves one hungry not only for sweets, but also for the chance to go out and try something new, to meet new and interesting people, to have an adventure.  The priest near the end of the film puts it best when he says (paraphrased) that we should not focus on what not to do, and whom not to include, but on what to do and whom to include in our lives.  And as the narrator summed up his sermon, perhaps not the most eloquent, or fiery statement ever made from a pulpit, but certainly a message that we all can take to heart.

-David