Customer Reviews

Chocolat

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

A beautifully whimsical story by a slate of perfectly-cast actors in an unbelievably idyllic setting. My wife and I have watched this so many times and have never tired of the wide range of good feelings that come from the story. This is a wonderful humanitarian feel-good movie with some deep hidden messages that show humanity at its best and worst.

Significant upgrade over the regular dvd, eye popping details and very good sound. Very good buy.

This is one of my favourite movies and I've been trying to get a copy for many years. Amazing to me that it hasn't been available in video stores. So happy to get one, finally, via Amazon but not quite so happy once I'd received it. It stalls about 2/3 of the way through and the only way to get it unstalled is to rewind and then forward again. Annoying to say the least! The movie itself is fantastic. It's only the mechanics of the DVD that is annoying.

This is still the best movie (of all times). I re-discovered this movie, after I lost my original copy. When I saw it again, it's like I got into this world of fantasy. And, Johnny Depp!All I can say is Wow...

Beautiful movie, shows the power food can have on the human spirit. Chocolate especially. Juliette Binoche as beautiful and sensual as ever. A must see.

Bought Chocolat in Blu Ray, though felt slightly dissapointed with the soft 'focus' result, then I remebered, that's how I saw it in the Cinema!! Great film, should be in every serious film devotee's collection.

This is a pleasant, though obvious, adult fable, broadly hinting at the often sensual, restorative, and mystical properties of chocolate. A beautiful and mysterious woman, Vianne, delightfully played by the winsome Juliette Binoche, along with her daughter, Anouk, arrive in a remote and very provincial French town, where she rents a patisserie from an elderly, crotchety woman, magnificently played by Judi Dench, and turns it into a chocolatier. From here, she concocts visually dazzling, mouthwatering amounts of chocolates, along with copious cups of hot cocoa made from a very special recipe, that are always sold or given by Vianne with a Julia Roberts style, mega watt smile. Vianne is always kind, compassionate, and tolerant. She is, therefore, a person to be feared by those who lack those traits. That is why she is greeted with bare civility by the town's mayor, wonderfully played by the always underrated, very talented Alfred Molina. He is a sanctimonious, intolerant, unhappy, religious prig, who insists on writing the sermons for the town's young, beleagured priest. Offended by Vianne's easy charm and her resistance to his invitation to attend church services, the mayor, whose hardened exterior hides a profound sorrow, declares war on Vianne, as he perceives her to be a threat to his established order of things.

Meanwhile, Vianne finally warms up and disarms her crotchety landlady, jumpstarts a tired marriage for two villagers, and befriends a battered woman, played with appropriate pathos, delicacy, and spirit by Lena Olin. She also manages a flirtation with an Irish drifter named Roux, well played by Johnny Depp, though they seem to lack chemistry together. She gains the confidence of those willing to become friendly with her through the mystical properties of her chocolates and hot cocoa, changing their lives forever. Though the mayor has vowed to drive Vianne's business into the ground and run her out of town, Vianne hangs on, determined to stay until the North winds blow her and her daughter to yet another unhappy town. What happens in this town, however, ultimately changes the lives of its mayor, the villagers, and even Vianne, forever.

This is a lovely, well acted, and moderately entertaining film, that thematically deals with the mystical, sensual, and palliative properties of chocolate. It is a frothy, pleasant confection. If you want a film, dealing with a similar theme, that will fully satisfy an appetite, however, one need look no further than the superb film, "Like Water for Chocolate".

This is a unique movie with features and messages portrayed in "Babette's Feast (1988)" and "Like Water for Chocolate (1993)".

The story has been told many ways. Yet this movie is still unique in its presentation. We get to visit with our favorite actors and they do such a good job that they do not overwhelm the characters. I especially liked Alfred Molina who played a similar role in "Enchanted April (1992)" as someone that really was not a bad person; he was just misunderstood or has a misunderstanding and comes around later to be really a good guy.

Like "Babette's Feast", everyone is supposed to shun Vianne Rocher who goes out of her way to help people. And like "Like Water for Chocolate" the movie has a mystical feel.

Basic story is a town where everyone knows their place and duty is visited by a north wind caring a mysterious woman and her daughter. Their present's wakes up the people from their organized existence.

The DVD has all the DVD goodies that you are looking for, such as voice over, deleted scenes etc. And they do not force the coming attractions on you.

Chocolat is a wonderful little film that has much to say people, as individuals and as groups. With its exotic yet familiar feel, beguiling music, and focus on truly human characters, the movie stands as an oasis in the middle of the desert we call life. Don't get the idea that this film is boring just because it doesn't feature a lot of "action," as there is a great deal going on in the lives of these characters. They are all at a collective crossroads, only it's not really a crossroads because the only real options are to go forward or backward.

The setting is a quaint French village which stands starkly on tradition; new people with new ideas just aren't welcome there at all. The best way that I can think to describe the social setting is to say that these are French people being French. There's one self-righteous, powerful know-it-all at the top who tells everyone what to do and how to do it, and all of the villagers are too cowardly to rock the boat or think for themselves. Living in the past is a miserable way to live. You've got an elderly woman still mourning her husband's death 42 years after the fact, a younger widow who won't let her son doing anything because she's afraid something will happen to him, a wife who won't leave her abusive husband, etc. Everyone is so worried about what others might think of them that they don't really live. The mayor is so puritanically dominant that he even writes the sermons for the young village priest.

Things start to change when a stranger and her daughter show up (wearing red cloaks, no less) and open a chocolate shop. There's a bewitching quality to Vianne (Juliette Binoche), as she seems to know the right kind of chocolate for each person who enters her shop, and there really is some kind of unquantifiable power in her delicious concoctions. With it, she melts the hardened heart of a grumbling old woman (played magnificently by Judi Dench), puts the romance back into a passionless marriage, and even helps give an abused wife the strength to leave her worthless husband. The mayor and most of the townspeople are not at all happy - and then things get even worse, as a band of "river rats" settles on the local riverbanks. The whole town just says no to "immorality" and refuses to serve or have anything to do with the "dangerous" riff-raff - but Vianne does. She hits it off particularly well with a guitar-playing nomad named Roux (Johnny Depp).

Naturally, all of this internal conflict going on inside everyone eventually comes to a climax - and it is here, in particular, that we see both the good and bad side of humanity. There are some really poignant moments as the film draws near to a conclusion, and in the end you're left with something tangible, a renewed spirit. Maybe it's just for a few moments, but you stop and think about the truly important things in life. That's what makes this beguiling little film so special.

I didn't get all the hype around Chocolat that everyone made it seem.The acting and dialogue aren't the problem.The film is just extremely strange which made me kind of like it, but it was to odd and boring at times.It tells a sweet tale and ends well but I just didn't get into it.Binoche does a great job along with much of the cast.The characters are loved and you hurt when they are hurt but it doesn't pay back for the dullness.I just can't sit two hours through a film like that.I get bored and start to doze off especially later at night.Don't get me wrong it has a sort of heart warming tale and great looking chocolate but that doesn't help a movie get a good rating.Johnny Depp and Judi Dench especially do a fabulous job and Dench really was in my opinion a stronger and more believable character.Another thing that is interesting about the film is the setting and it's moral.I didn't like the cloudly dark feeling around the film either.The overall major problems though are the dullness and unusual plot; also it is a bit predictable.I really only reccomend this one if you are very easily impressed by all movies or you may want to check it out if your bored.

It is the late 1950s, but it might as well be the late 1850s in a small French town where everyone behaves as they should (supposedly), and attends church regularly. When a strong North wind blows through town, it brings the vivacious and mysterious Vianne (Juliette Binoche) and her young daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol). Vianne is soon the talk of the town: an unwed mother who declines to go to church and opens up a chocolate shop in the midst of Lent. Her good-natured, honorable personality and psychic ability (she can predict what kind of sweets best suit each person, and magically cures each of them of their particular maladies) make her as irresistible as her delectable treats. However, Vianne and her daughter are resented by the conservative mayor, the Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina), and by the pious Caroline (Carrie-Anne Moss), who has disowned her own spirited mother (Judi Dench, who plays Vianne's landlady), refusing the elderly woman access to her beloved grandson.This touching fairy tale, based on the novel by Joanne Harris, was filmed on location in rural France. An intelligent, exquisitely filmed fable that deals with the idea of 20th Century paganism rising up against a closed-minded church and a persevering aristocracy, CHOCOLAT is enjoyable, romantic, and entertaining, with affecting performances by both its stars and its supporting actors (Lena Olin and Johnny Depp.)