Chocolat

Following in the footsteps of such magic food films as “Like Water for Chocolate” and (less successfully) “Woman on Top” comes this tasty fable of food and love. Based upon a novel by Joanne Harris, “Chocolat” is directed by Lasse Hallström, who made his name with smaller independent films like “My Life as a Dog” and “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” before hitting the radar with the overrated “The Cider House Rules.” “Chocolat” begins in a monotone gray village in the French countryside, where everything has stayed the same for generations. The people like it that way, or at least they think they do. Mostly, the mayor, le Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina), likes it that way. Having decided that he is the town’s moral compass and arbiter, he goes to great lengths to keep his village uncorrupted.

Meanwhile, he is forced to maintain the fiction that his wife is on extended vacation, when everyone knows that she left him, presumably because of his puritanical inflexibility. Into this cold and repressed place comes the vivacious Vianne, who is virtually overflowing with positive life force. Vianne (played by the luminous Juliette Binoche, whom many will remember as Hana in “The English Patient”) is descended from a long line of mystical women, whose mission, it appears, is to find places sorely in need of an infusion of warmth and cheer, and deliver it. Vianne is driven by the wind, and in one of the film’s ironies seems destined to bring happiness to others while never finding it herself. Her life of forced wandering means that she and her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol) are always being uprooted just when they are becoming happy and settled in their new home. Until now, of course. Vianne buys an old storefront shop, fixes it up, and opens a chocolaterie, for chocolate is her preferred tool for effecting social change and helping the emotionally stunted get in touch with their inner happiness. Alas, decadent chocolate treats are scandalous by the standards of the town, and le Comte de Raynaud decides it is his duty to shut down Vianne’s shop and drive her out of town.

However, he does not reckon on the true power of Vianne’s life force, not to mention that of her supernatural chocolates, which seem to have mysterious powers. Little by little Vianne wins the affection and admiration (and in some cases gratitude) of the townspeople. These include her landlord Amande (Densch, in full crustiness mode) and Caroline (nicely played by Carrie-Anne Moss, usually seen in tough futurama babe roles like that in “The Matrix”). She also helps Josephine (the still ravishing Olin) escape her abusive husband and recover her self-esteem. A group of river traveling gypsies arrive to make camp on the shores of the river. With their vagabond nature and their libertarian attitude (they even dance!) they are even more threatening to le Comte de Reynaud’s constricted worldview than Vianne’s chocolates. When Vianne takes up with gypsy leader Roux (Depp, effective in what is actually a rather small role), Reynaud’s worst fears seem to have come to life. As the townsfolk gradually learn to embrace that which they had shunned, Reynaud must come to grips with his own inner fears and longings. A man who had made a life’s work out of ascetic self-denial, he, too, must learn to love himself.

Fortunately, there are those chocolates to help ease the transition. “Chocolat” is literally a traveling angel picture, with Vianne as the traveler (and, for all we know, an angel as well) bringing her special gifts to the town. But it is also a liberation fantasy disguised as a conventional melodrama. It is hard to argue with the picture’s live life to the fullest mentality (though you have to wonder how the message would be received if Vianne espoused the healing powers of, say, marijuana, instead of chocolate). The picture wears its viewpoint lightly, though, and its pleasures derive as much from its vivid characters as from the delectable looking treats it displays. The ending is unambiguously happy and can hardly fail to please all but the most jaded. The movie (which, we now know, has received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture) is lovely to look at, shot in frosty silvers and golds (and those rich chocolate tones, of course), which have turned summery by the end. Hallström directs his actors well, with fine performances by Molina and Olin. Binoche, an earth mother goddess, makes us believe everything Vianne does, not to mention everything her confections do, and really, if you can’t believe in the redemptive power of chocolate, what can you believe in? (3/7/2001)