Chocolat

CHOCOLAT

Rating: A-

When we last encountered director Lasse Hallstrom, he was spending all his efforts trying to convince us of the wholesomeness of aborting babies in The Cider House Rules. His latest offering Chocolat is no less preachy, but at least the message here is as palatable as the title.

Juliette Binoche arrives one day in a small town in France with her young daughter in tow. Much to the consternation of the stodgy townsfolk, she opens up a chocolate shop. Even worse, the shop's opening happens to coincide with the beginning of Lent, a fact viewed as downright sacrilegious by the mayor (Alfred Molina) of this church-going community. It's not long before the mayor and the rest of the villagers are gossiping about Binoche behind her back, and going out of their way to make her feel unwelcome.

Veteran Net-Monster readers (the ones who take good notes, anyway) will recognize Binoche's chocolate shop as a metaphor for the pleasures in life (carnal and otherwise). The villagers' initial resistance to her shop is characteristic of their belief that self-denial will gain them a reward in the afterlife. As you might expect, this leads to many humorous scenes of Binoche battling the closed-minded thinking of the townspeople, particularly the mayor. Along the way, Binoche's influence inspires them to take positive steps in their lives such as healing age-old rifts and extricating themselves from destructive marriages. Were this the sum total of its message, the film would still have been enjoyable even if a bit familiar. But Hallstrom adds more depth when Binoche later recognizes some of the same flaws in her own thinking that she so readily sees in her neighbors, and how her unquestioning acceptance of old beliefs and traditions has stunted her life and that of her daughter. The final scene involving her daughter and her imaginary playmate works extremely well, in what turns out to be a very uplifting film.

Johnny Depp has a minor role as a "river rat" - one of a clan of people who live aboard a houseboat and drift from town to town along the river. Introduced somewhat late in the film (hint: don't see this movie just to see Depp), his life of aimless wandering in many ways mirrors that of Binoche. Unfortunately, his character remains underdeveloped throughout, so when he makes an important decision late in the movie it lacks the impact it might have had if we felt closer to him.