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- Chocolat
(Reviewed December 14, 2000, by James Dawson)
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Maybe I'm showing my soft, gooey center, but I absolutely loved "Chocolat." I went in expecting a cutesy French ripoff of "Like Water for Chocolate," a movie that already has been badly plagiarized at
least twice (by the Penelope Cruz movie "Woman on Top" and by the monumentally awful Sarah Michelle Gellar movie "Simply Irresistible"). Instead, "Chocolat" turned out to be a different flavor
altogether. It is sweet, warm, beautifully presented and wholesomely delicious.
Free-spirited Juliette Binoche, the sort of actress for whom the term "classically beautiful" was invented, arrives in a conservative French town circa 1959 with her young daughter to open a chocolate shop.
The forces of church and state (represented together in the form of the town's mayor, played by Alfred Molina) attempt to subdue, convert, repress and expel her. She resists with charm and grace, befriends
the town's outcasts (including the great Judi Dench as her crotchety landlord and Lena Olin as an abused wife), and is charmed in turn by the Irish leader of a bohemian group of "river rats" (Johnny Depp).
There are not many surprises in the sentimental plot, but that's because the story has the comfortable predictability of a children's fable, and you won't mind a bit.
"Chocolat" is beautifully photographed, with wonderful performances from everyone in the large cast, and is directed with tender loving care by "Cider House Rules" director Lasse Hallstrom.
This is one of the best movies of the year. And if you are worried that it is "one of them gol-durn furrin films with subtitles," fear not. Despite the movie's title and setting, all dialog is in English (not
dubbed English, but the real thing from the git-go). So now you have no excuses. Go!
Back Row Grade: A
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