With movies like Chocolat, it's always best to relax your intellectual faculties and absorb the abundant sensual pleasures, be it the heart-stopping smile of chocolatier Juliette Binoche as she greets a new customer, an intoxicating cup of spiced hot cocoa, or the soothing guitar of an Irish gypsy played by Johnny Depp. Adapted by Robert Nelson Jacobs from Joanne Harris's popular novel and lovingly directed by Lasse Hallström, the film covers familiar territory and deals in broad metaphors that even a child could comprehend, so it's no surprise that some critics panned it with killjoy fervor. Their objections miss the point. Familiarity can be comforting and so can easy metaphors when placed in a fable that's as warmly inviting as this one.

Driven by fate, Vianne (Binoche) drifts into a tranquil French village with her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol, from Ponette) in the winter of 1959. Her newly opened chocolatier is a source of attraction and fear, since Vianne's ability to revive the villagers' passions threatens to disrupt their repressive traditions. The pious mayor (Alfred Molina) sees Vianne as the enemy, and his war against her peaks with the arrival of "river rats" led by Roux (Depp), whose attraction to Vianne is immediate and reciprocal. Splendid subplots involve a battered wife (Lena Olin), a village elder (Judi Dench), and her estranged daughter (Carrie-Anne Moss), and while the film's broader strokes may be regrettable (if not for Molina's rich performance, the mayor would be a caricature), its subtleties are often sublime. Chocolat reminds you of life's simple pleasures and invites you to enjoy them. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Rating:
Summary: Women's movie ... but pretty good
Comment: This movie follows an increasingly common theme. Men are pretty much all pigs. The only meaningful intimacies are between women. The Johnny Depp character is very shallow and superfluous and provides only an unconvincing heterosexual love interest for Juliete Binoche. Notwithstanding the foregoing, it's an engaging film and worth watching.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: ONE FABULOUS CONFECTION
Comment: Lasse Halstrom weaves a wonderfully entertaining adult fairy tale from Joanne Harris' book, with a stellar international cast. Juliette Binoche, Alfred Molina, Judi Dench, Lena Olin, and Johnny Depp are all excellent in this film- in fact, the entire cast is great. The cinematography is beautiful.

Poking fun at repression, and self-righteousness with chocolate as a chosen metaphor for temptation seems perhaps a bit simplistic on the surface, but in this marvelously, delectable presentation, there resides a creamy filling of mouth-watering, characterization. You can never have too much CHOCOLAT!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Comment: Simply loved this movie. Loved it so much got the soundtrack. This movie makes helps you learn stuff about yourself that you might not have thought about.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Mmmmm Chocolate...
Comment: Loved this movie. It's cute and simple, yet has a lot of messages about life and people and religious dogmas. Total chick flick. My boyfriend didn't make it through.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A delicious treat
Comment: Based on the novel by Joanne Harris, the film "Chocolat" takes a lot of liberties with the book's story, but is still a very good film. The movie revolves around a mysterious woman, Vianne (Juliette Binoche), who arrives rather suddenly to a remote French village with her young daughter in tow. Vianne quickly settles in and establishes a chocolate shop, which instantly becomes the talk of the town. While certain people are intrigued by this fascinating woman and her sinfully sweet candies, other townspeople see Vianne as an immoral person who threatens the village's core principles and values. When a band of "pirates" (a.k.a. Irish gypsies) arrive in town, Vianne immediately befriends their leader (Johnny Depp), causing other people in the town (especially the mayor) to resent her even more. Eventually Vianne is tempted to flee again in search of another new start, but this time she may have found something worth staying and fighting for.

As I said, there are some major differences between the film and the novel. Usually when filmmakers deviate from the books their films are based on, they end up with a gigantic mess. However, that isn't the case with "Chocolat," which is an endearing film with a wonderful cast. I highly recommend it.

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