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Chocolat
With a lot of credit going to the director of What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and The Cider House Rules, the 2000 film Chocolat is an enchanting and lyrical cinematic fable that fuels viewer imagination and fills our hearts thanks to a story that allows viewer input into what's going on and a sparkling cast that serves the director's vision.
The setting is a remote village in the French countryside during the 1950's as the audience is introduced to Vianne (Oscar winner Juliette Binoche), a vivacious young woman who arrives in the village with her young daughter in order to open up her own chocolate shop. Not long after her business opens, we witness Vianne's chocolate creations revive the sex life of a middle-aged couple, bring her landlady (Oscar winner Judi Dench) together with her grandson, who her daughter (Carrie-Ann Moss) has been keeping away from her and save a woman (Lena Olin) from her abusive marriage to a creepy bar owner (Peter Stormare). Meanwhile, the town's mayor (Alfred Molina) thinks Vianne's chocolate is evil and imbued with some sort of evil spirit and does everything he can to shut her business down.
Robert Nelson Jacob's screenplay, based on a novel by Joanne Harris, is given an other worldly atmosphere from the opening scene, where a brisk wind is seen blowing through the village from the heavens, seeming to imply that some sort of spell is being set on the village before Vianne's arrival. The rest of the exposition is fun as we watch Vianne setting up her shop, which is right across the street from the church. Director Lasse Hallstrom shows Vianne and her daughter putting a lot of work in preparing their business for opening without showing exactly what the business is and piquing villager curiosity. We don't know until we get a loving shot of a huge spoon stirring a large vat of chocolate, followed shortly by Vianne pulling up the curtain on her front display window, crammed with all kinds of chocolate creations that dazzle the eye and would put Willie Wonka to shame.
Jacobs' screenplay also scores in the way it shows the different changes that some of the characters go through. No one in this story is the same person at the end of the movie that they were at the beginning. The story of the mayor trying to fix the abusive bar owner is compelling and fools us with its initial simplicity, a perfect counterpart to the growth of the the wife who blossoms when she starts to work for Vianne. We never really understand the mayor's resentment of the chocolate shop. He treats Vianne like she just opened a whorehouse but even the mayor goes through a remarkable transformation that we don't see coming at all.
The film's rich production values serve the director's vision, resulting in a cinematic marvel that received five Oscar nominations, including a Lead Actress nomination for Binoche and a Supporting Actress nomination for Dench, Johnny Depp's sex-on-legs performance as Roux and Stormare's barkeeper dazzle as well, but if the truth be known, the acting honors here go to Albert Molina's powerhouse work as the mayor that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. And if you don't blink, you'll catch a brief appearance from movie legend Leslie Caron. A unique film experience that doesn't spell everything out and allows the viewer to make their own decision as to exactly what's going on.
With a lot of credit going to the director of What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and The Cider House Rules, the 2000 film Chocolat is an enchanting and lyrical cinematic fable that fuels viewer imagination and fills our hearts thanks to a story that allows viewer input into what's going on and a sparkling cast that serves the director's vision.
The setting is a remote village in the French countryside during the 1950's as the audience is introduced to Vianne (Oscar winner Juliette Binoche), a vivacious young woman who arrives in the village with her young daughter in order to open up her own chocolate shop. Not long after her business opens, we witness Vianne's chocolate creations revive the sex life of a middle-aged couple, bring her landlady (Oscar winner Judi Dench) together with her grandson, who her daughter (Carrie-Ann Moss) has been keeping away from her and save a woman (Lena Olin) from her abusive marriage to a creepy bar owner (Peter Stormare). Meanwhile, the town's mayor (Alfred Molina) thinks Vianne's chocolate is evil and imbued with some sort of evil spirit and does everything he can to shut her business down.
Robert Nelson Jacob's screenplay, based on a novel by Joanne Harris, is given an other worldly atmosphere from the opening scene, where a brisk wind is seen blowing through the village from the heavens, seeming to imply that some sort of spell is being set on the village before Vianne's arrival. The rest of the exposition is fun as we watch Vianne setting up her shop, which is right across the street from the church. Director Lasse Hallstrom shows Vianne and her daughter putting a lot of work in preparing their business for opening without showing exactly what the business is and piquing villager curiosity. We don't know until we get a loving shot of a huge spoon stirring a large vat of chocolate, followed shortly by Vianne pulling up the curtain on her front display window, crammed with all kinds of chocolate creations that dazzle the eye and would put Willie Wonka to shame.
Jacobs' screenplay also scores in the way it shows the different changes that some of the characters go through. No one in this story is the same person at the end of the movie that they were at the beginning. The story of the mayor trying to fix the abusive bar owner is compelling and fools us with its initial simplicity, a perfect counterpart to the growth of the the wife who blossoms when she starts to work for Vianne. We never really understand the mayor's resentment of the chocolate shop. He treats Vianne like she just opened a whorehouse but even the mayor goes through a remarkable transformation that we don't see coming at all.
The film's rich production values serve the director's vision, resulting in a cinematic marvel that received five Oscar nominations, including a Lead Actress nomination for Binoche and a Supporting Actress nomination for Dench, Johnny Depp's sex-on-legs performance as Roux and Stormare's barkeeper dazzle as well, but if the truth be known, the acting honors here go to Albert Molina's powerhouse work as the mayor that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. And if you don't blink, you'll catch a brief appearance from movie legend Leslie Caron. A unique film experience that doesn't spell everything out and allows the viewer to make their own decision as to exactly what's going on.