Cheap Chocolat (Video) (Alfred Molina, Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench) (Lasse Hallström) Price

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Customer Reviews of Chocolat

Delicious
Coming from Lasse Hallstrom, the director of 'Cider House Rules', this film is sweet as it's name. It is a simple story set in a French village in the late 1950s. Vianne ( Juliette Binoche ) who migrates from village to village comes here alongwith her daughter Anouk ( Victoriwe Thivisol ) on a cold windy day. She rents a shop from Amande ( Judi Dench ) to open a delightful Chocolaterie. Her little shop introduces the villagers to the pleasures of delectable chocolate and spiced hot cocoa which Vianne prepares and serves personally. She befriends many with her knack of guessing each one's favourite flavour. Little does she know that this town is controlled by the Mayor ( Alfred Molina ) who is an orthodox man and despises all such worldly pleasures. He uses the church sermons to preach the village folk to stay away from such temptations he considers sins and makes no pretence of his dislike towards Vianne. The movie is about how Vianne takes up this challenge fighting her own insecurities and seduces the village with her fine art of making sinfully tempting chocolates. There are several subplots in the film - one of a battered wife Josephine (Lena Olin ) who stands up for herself , Amande's bitter relation with her daughter and her longing to be with her grandson, the Mayor's own inauthenticity and the bad boy gypsy Roux ( Johnny Depp ) who plays the love interest of Vianne.

The movie is warm and sensitive. There is a lot of lighthearted humour brought out in various situations. The scenes that show the making of delicious and eye-catching chocolates are delightful. All chocolate lovers will be lip smacking at those very moments. But, movie's strength is in exposing the hypocrisy of those who claim to be close to God but have chosen the path of denial even to such simple a pleasure as enjoying a chocolate. It teaches us to drop all the significance we give to our lives instead of just relishing our moments.

Vianne's character as the charming chocolatier is played to perfection by Juliette Binoche. While, Albert Molina as the repressive Mayor is excellent. Johnny Depp gives the romantic angle to the film. Judi Dench as the old indulgent Amande is graceful.

See this one, it will bring a sweet smile to your face.

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FEAST AND FABLE
Chocolat is a sumptuous feast for those with a cinematic sweet tooth. A single mother (Juliette Binoche) driven by the restless wanderlust of her Navaho mother's spirit, moves to a quiet French town with her six year old daughter and opens a chocolate shop in the middle of Lent, the Catholic fast before Easter. Her free spirited atheism enrages the sanctimonious mayor (Alfred Molina), and a battle commences for the hearts and minds of the villagers.

There is magic swirling around Binoche and her chocolatery, blurring the lines between real and unreal and giving the story the feel of a fable. However the gritty performance of Lena Olin as a battered wife keeps it from floating too far from earth. Swedish director Lasse Hallström (My Life as a Dog) once again paints a convincingly chilly portrait of small town life, aided by the capable acting of Binoche, Judi Dench and Johnny Depp in particular. Be warned, however, the real star of this movie is the chocolate. Don't go on an empty stomach or you may find yourself worryingly distracted from the narrative flow. The story is light on dramatic urgency, but the cast stirs in their own spicy fruit into the half-baked script and the result is delicious enough to satisfy the most gluttonous of appetites.

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Chocolat
I didn't get all the hype around Chocolat that everyone made it seem.The acting and dialogue aren't the problem.The film is just extremely strange which made me kind of like it, but it was to odd and boring at times.It tells a sweet tale and ends well but I just didn't get into it.Binoche does a great job along with much of the cast.The characters are loved and you hurt when they are hurt but it doesn't pay back for the dullness.I just can't sit two hours through a film like that.I get bored and start to doze off especially later at night.Don't get me wrong it has a sort of heart warming tale and great looking chocolate but that doesn't help a movie get a good rating.Johnny Depp and Judi Dench especially do a fabulous job and Dench really was in my opinion a stronger and more believable character.Another thing that is interesting about the film is the setting and it's moral.I didn't like the cloudly dark feeling around the film either.The overall major problems though are the dullness and unusual plot; also it is a bit predictable.I really only reccomend this one if you are very easily impressed by all movies or you may want to check it out if your bored.

It is the late 1950s, but it might as well be the late 1850s in a small French town where everyone behaves as they should (supposedly), and attends church regularly. When a strong North wind blows through town, it brings the vivacious and mysterious Vianne (Juliette Binoche) and her young daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol). Vianne is soon the talk of the town: an unwed mother who declines to go to church and opens up a chocolate shop in the midst of Lent. Her good-natured, honorable personality and psychic ability (she can predict what kind of sweets best suit each person, and magically cures each of them of their particular maladies) make her as irresistible as her delectable treats. However, Vianne and her daughter are resented by the conservative mayor, the Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina), and by the pious Caroline (Carrie-Anne Moss), who has disowned her own spirited mother (Judi Dench, who plays Vianne's landlady), refusing the elderly woman access to her beloved grandson.This touching fairy tale, based on the novel by Joanne Harris, was filmed on location in rural France. An intelligent, exquisitely filmed fable that deals with the idea of 20th Century paganism rising up against a closed-minded church and a persevering aristocracy, CHOCOLAT is enjoyable, romantic, and entertaining, with affecting performances by both its stars and its supporting actors (Lena Olin and Johnny Depp.)