Chocolat, based on the novel by Joanne Harris - 8.6 out of 10

Chocolat, based on the novel by Joanne Harris
8.6 out of 10


Chocolat has been one of the best films of the early 2000s.

It was nominated for five Oscars, including for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading and Supporting Roles and Best Screenplay.
There are also Golden Globes, BAFTAs and other nominations and trophies.



Furthermore, the narrative is compelling, the characters interesting and the acting is excellent.
Juliette Binoche, nominated for the Oscar, Golden Globe and other awards, is excellent as Vianne Rocher.

This is the heroine who opens a Chocolate shop in a French village populated mostly by wondrous people and some nefarious characters.
The Compte de Reynaud aka the always remarkable Alfred Molina is the austere, somewhat masochistic and uneelected, unofficial leader of the place.

He abstains from almost any pleasure, including jam and rather sordid foods, until he would go on a rampage eating massive quantities of chocolate when he can no longer resist temptation.
His religious views are not just rigid and antiquated, bit outright dangerous and fundamentalist, until something happens to change this.

He protects the vicious Jean-Marc Drou, who beats his wife and starts a fire, thinking that his spiritual mentor, the count, had wanted it.
The film is a subtle, often amusing take on bigotry, exaggeration, hypocrisy, sending the message that love, honesty and virtue might win the day.

There are many splendors, such as the scene where the priest thinks he is alone in the garden and sings an Elvis Presley rock hit and...dances in the manner of that star...
Only to be spotted by the local Torquemada, the count.

This High Inquisitor is himself caught in a ridiculous posture.
Furious with Vianne and the temptations of her shop, opened as an act of defiance as he sees it, just before Lent, he breaks in and starts destroying the Chocolat figures, small sculptures and everything around them.
As he committed this damage, sweet, delightful compositions land on his lips.

And he cannot resist!
The Horseman of the Apocalypse eats the Chocolat until he falls asleep at the scene of the crime, with smudge on his face.