Lindsey Lowson / 02 December 2024 / Categories: Movie

Chocolat

There’s something about Alfred Molina

If Alfred Molina’s in a movie I’m watching. There are so many movies I rate of his, from Raiders of the Lost Ark, Prick Up Your Ears, Enchanted April, Maverick, Species, Boogie Nights brilliance, Frida, Spider-Man 2, my favourite Marvel superhero, The Da Vinci Code, An Education, Love Is Strange the list goes on. I just think he’s a great actor and no more so than his performance in Chocolat where he plays the uptight dictatorial mayor. Comte De Reynard in a small French post war town, trying to keep piety and religious order amongst the townsfolk in the midst of an unusual new arrival the beautiful Juliette Binoche.

I cannot remember all the characters names but the gist of it, Juliette Binoche single mother (shock horror) Vianne Rocher, arrives in town with her daughter, (no husband) which sets tongues wagging in the first place as she sets about opening up a Chocolate shop.

She’s unusual and beautiful, warm and kind so it isn’t long before the Mayor and the towns new arrival cross paths.

A star studded cast sees Judi Dench playing a wise, yet equally belligerent grandmother who befriends the new comer, thwarting the wishes of her daughter played by Carrie Anne Moss and the mayor to boycott the chocolate shop and Johnny Depp who plays another anti establishment Romany love interest for Binoche.

It’s a little bit mystical, a little bit light, tongue in cheek like the director is shining a mirror in our faces showing us how ugly we, society, can be.

The story shows double standards in a tongue in cheek way and teaches us how

much progress can be made with sheer endurance and hard work.

A beautiful film from 2000

directed by Lasse Holstein. A great out the box holiday watch, feel good movie without the in the box Disney happy ending.

It’s not bad or sad just wonderfully not as I expected.