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Chocolat Customer Reviews (25 - 27 of 72 Reviews)

Save the Preaching for Sunday
This movie had a lot of potential. It has a fine cast, wonderful setting, and the beginnings of an intersting story. However, I can't recommend this movie. I actually found it irritating. Here's why:

This movie has an agenda; a message it is trying to promote. The message is a basic humanist take on life; be tolerant and accepting of other people, sit around and chat over a cup of hot chocolate and leave the larger concerns alone... if you do this you'll be a good person.

That message is not bad. In fact, it's the underlying theme of a lot of literature. The problem is that in Chocolat, it's so heavily pushed that it feels like watching a propaganda piece. Over and over, the film tells you want to think, how to react. It is as if the film were the very embodiment of its own antagonist, Reynaud... 'There is a right way to think and a wrong way to think. See how we are showing you the right way? This is the right way. The other way is wrong. Do you see how the other way is wrong?'

In order to promote its agenda the film tears down other points of view. Indulgence is better than discipline. Drifters are kinder and more intelligent than parishioners. The Catholic church is first made to look lost, then laughable, then evil. All is set aright, however, when the village priest sets aside more traditional views and embraces the main idea of the film.

Conveniently, the priest's new views are delivered in a concise sermon... and acutal sermon, caught on film so that we cannot possibly miss the message of the movie.

The bottom line on this topic is that the film believes its message is more important than its story and it really shows.

I also must admit that I found the characters to be very shallow. All the main characters are either monotone or two-tone (my term for being initially opposed to the protagonist, then suddently changed to being on the side of the protagonist with no interviening struggle). The protagonist is uninteresting (no inner conflict). The Johnny Depp character is even more uninteresting (a drifter who is immediately accepted by and is accepting of the protagonist; he brings nothing to the story, except for being yet another outcast that is a good person and enjoys chocolate). The only character that is at all interesting is the town Mayor, Reynaud. But even the fine acting of Alfred Molina cannot save this film.

The film is meant to be somewhat of a whimsical, mystical, fairy tale, so I can accept some lack of character depth or true conflict, for this and for the films beautiful setting, I'm not reducing it to 1 star, but I can't give it any more than 2.

It is what it is
This movie is very pleasant to watch, but there is no getting around the message it sends that church is not important and that it is for stuck up people who don't know how to have fun.

As much as I dis-agree with this concept one must admit that this film was well acted, well done, and beautifuly filmed.

It is what it is.

Delicious?
Yes.

Against Christianity?
Mostly.

However, I completely agree with the sermon of the preachers pupil near the end of the film when he brings up the humanity of Christ because without that side of Christ he coulnd't have saved us at all.

So the film has alot of good things to say as well but it preaches a waterd down Christianity that does not condemn fornication or indulgence.

Dulce tentación que libera
Seduce, crea pasiones y lleva al pecado. Con semejante descripción, ¿quién se puede resistir a un pedacito, aunque sea mínimo, de tan irresistible tentación?

¡Una sola palabra puede provocar tantas sensaciones, marear nuestra imaginación de visiones placenteras, despertar pensamientos de exceso y seducción!

De la pluma de Joanne Harris nació una historia pícara llamada Chocolate, llevada a la gran pantalla por el director Lasse Halström (Las Reglas de la Vida), y protagonizada por Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Carrie-Ann Moss, Lena Olin, Johnny Depp, Alfred Molina y Victoire Thivisol.

En la pequeña villa francesa de Lansquenet, de moral estricta y pacífico ambiente, una guerra entre la tradición y el cambio está a punto de explotar. Mientras los vientos del norte toman otro rumbo, y anuncian el inicio de la cuaresma, Vianne Rocher y su hija Anouk llegan a Lansquenet para hacerse cargo de una tienda abandonada y convertirla en una chocolatería. Inspirada por las recetas de sus antepasados, Vianne crea deliciosas confecciones que son percibidas por el alcalde de la villa como amenazas contra la moral y la tradición. Y en efecto, sus chocolates tienen el poder de liberar los sentimientos y emociones reprimidas de aquellos que los prueban.

Esta es una fábula sobre cómo el disfrute de los placeres de la vida puede cambiar por completo a una persona, una relación, una ciudad entera incluso. Combinación intoxicante de humor, drama, sensualidad y magia, todos mezclados perfectamente en una historia que si bien tiene toques de fantasía, también posee la pizca suficiente de realidad para interesarnos por sus personajes y los temas que se tocan. La verdad y la honestidad batallan contra el dogamtismo y la hipocrecía. La libertad que logramos vivir empleando nuestros sentidos a plenitud se impone a los sentimientos reprimidos y los deseos ocultos del alma.

Desde la siempre cálida Juliette Binoche como la liberal Vianne, hasta el antipático Alfred Molina como el alcalde Reynaud, el reparto entero nos entrega actuaciones divinas. Judi Dench, siempre magistral, roba todas las escenas con su Armande, Lena Olin es devastadora como Josephine, Johnny Depp es misterioso y encantador como Roux y la pequeña Victoire Thivisol nos roba el corazón como la hija de Vianne, Anouk.

Al igual que en Las Reglas de la Vida, Lasse Halström nos transporta mágicamente a otro lugar y época, haciéndonos parte del mundo singular de Lansquenet y la vida de sus habitantes. "Para mi Chocolate trata sobre el constante conflicto vital entre la tradición y el cambio, la intolerancia y las consecuencias que resultan cuando no se le permite a la gente vivir sus propias vidas y tener sus creencias".

Traduciendo las palabras de Halström: el chocolate es bueno, el amor es maravilloso, el sexo es divertido y los amigos son tesoros.

¿Quién puede discutir con eso?

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