By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * * )
Read the book on the plane to France, thought it trite, and was surprised to see that a heavyweight director (Lasse Hallstrom, The Cider House Rules) and Euro-stars (Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp) would waste time and talents on it.
Chocolat takes place
in a French village where nothing has happened for centuries until "a sly wind blew in from the north", bringing Vianne (Binoche) and her daughter. She opens a chocolate shop during Lent — quelle horreur! — when the locals abstain from treats. She immediately runs up against the local aristocrat, Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina), whose influence extends to writing moralistic sermons for the village priest to deliver.
Vianne might be a witch. Her sweets are good for whatever ails you and soon her shop is a chocholistic healing centre. One works like Viagra, another melts the heart of Armande (Dench), thus ending a long feud with her daughter (Carrie-Anne Moss).
But there is trouble, right here in River Village, in the shape of some outsiders who have arrived on boats without the right papers and brought with them strange customs that may not sit well with local ways (hmm, heard that somewhere else recently). They are led by Depp's character, and it's not hard to predict an alliance between the devilish chocolatier and his deep-blue eyes.
Yes, everyone will get what's coming to them in this little morality tale which could have been so much better if they'd kept the director and cast, decided to make a European film and not Hollywood goes to the Dordogne, and optioned a better book.
Running time: 121 mins
Rental: Today
