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'Chocolat' doesn't quite satisfy
A tempting cast includes Oscar winners Juliette Binoche and Judi Dench. But the story lacks the sensual abundance and cohesiveness of better movies that used food as metaphors.
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 21, 2000
[Photo: Miramax]
Juliette Binoche plays Vianne, whose chocolate confections make people of a French village misbehave.
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Chocolat is a trifle about truffles that once again proves the way to anyone's heart is through his or her stomach. Yet, Lasse Hallstrom's film is merely another course after a lengthy menu of better films on the subject.
Oscar winner Juliette Binoche (The English Patient) plays Vianne, a mysterious single mother who opens a chocolate shop in a provincial French village circa 1960. Her cocoa-flavored creations have the same swooning effects as rose-petal quail in Like Water for Chocolate or a grand risotto in Big Night. They're aphrodisiacs, not just for sex, but for a repressed communal lust for life.
The fact that Vianne offers these temptations during the abstinent period of Lent irritates the mayor, Comte de Reynard (Alfred Molina), a meddler who even controls the sermons in church. All but a few follow his lead. Chocolat is a genteel tussle between puffed-up saints and harmless sinners, barely grazing at our attention.
Nothing seems to be at stake here. Vianne and daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol) never reveal an agenda for their sudden appearance in town. The mayor's motivation to control is obvious from his first appearance. A late revelation of hypocrisy isn't surprising or devastating enough. It's a battle of wills neither side appears to be overly concerned about.
Without that drama (or farce), Chocolat diverts the story to bystanders making their decisions of whom to support. Academy Award winner Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love) plays a cranky grandmother bucking the mayor's authority for purposes left unclear until she's out of the picture. A battered wife (Lena Olin) finds shelter at the candy shop while her husband (Peter Stormare) seeks to preserve their tainted sacrament of marriage.
Vianne gets distracted by the arrival of an Irish "river rat" named Roux (Johnny Depp). Roux and his mates are rejected by the town as immoral intruders. The romance is just getting heated up when a pivotal fire erupts, as if an oven, not food, truly makes the difference.
The key to films using food as metaphor is a mouth-watering menu. We have to see what the characters are tasting, to at least acquaint our saliva glands with their points of view. Vianne's specialties are appealing, but it's just chocolate in various shapes and molds, occasionally dipped or sprinkled. We need more scenes, and kitchen ideas, like a glimpse of roasted duck with cocoa sauce. A chili pepper coated with chocolate looks inviting. Hallstrom notes its sexual effect, but only for a mild laugh.
The performances are fine, especially Stormare's dunce and Depp's understated rogue with a brogue. Flirting with Roux provides Binoche something to do besides gazing into a soft-focused camera lens. Molina has this cad routine down pat. Dench and Olin play their one-note roles well. Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) disappears into the set design until it's time to announce why she has been hanging around.
Chocolat isn't as sensual as Like Water for Chocolate, sentimental as Big Night or gluttonous as Babette's Feast. It's more like a sprig of parsley of the side of a full plate of holiday releases. Nibble, if you wish.
Chocolat
- Grade: B-
- Director: Lasse Hallstrom
- Cast: Juliette Binoche, Alfred Molina, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Peter Stormare, Carrie-Anne Moss, Victoire Thivisol, Leslie Caron
- Screenplay: Robert Nelson Jacobs, based on the novel by Joanne Harris
- Rating: PG-13; sexual situations, brief nudity, violence
- Running time: 121 min.
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