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I was unsure what I was going to expect from Chocolat. When I saw it on DVD, I actually really liked it. It was a very cute, intelligent, charming and beautiful story. It was cute and charming because of the chocolates and other things involving chocolate. Besides chocolate, it was a beautiful film on love, friendship, loyalty and commitment. This was a very personal film to watch because Vianne wants her chocolate shop to suceed. You only have to look at the title to work out the subject of the film actually is. Despite how beautiful the film sounds and is, it is a rather depressing story. What I liked most about this film was because it was set in France and the actors all did fine jobs at portraying French characters apart from Juliette Binoche because she is French herself. It is very clear too because the director made it an emotional story not one about chocolate for kids like Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory. Chocolat has an absolutely fantastic cast.
Juliette Binoche delivers a performance that truly is incredible. Juliette is really cute anyway but Vianne is a cute character to play and watch. Vianne is a single mother who looks after her young daughter. She opens a shop and when more customers come into the shop, she inadvertently ends up in one of their problems. Juliette seems that heartwarming caring type especially after seeing her Oscar winning performance in The English Patient which makes her in my opinion the perfect choice for Vianne. Now, Judi Dench, what I really love about her is that she always portrays hard, bitter and effective characters and she never disappoints. This one was a slightly softer character compared to Dench's other roles. Her performance as Armanda was very supportive, very persuasive to the character's attention and very powerful. I think Dench always takes acting and the characters she plays rather seriously just like the late Alec Guinness did. Johnny Depp, what can I say? This is the only film that he has been in that has been nominated for Best Picture. Johnny has always had that irresistable "awwww" within him his whole life but he shows it on a very high level here. The costumes he wears are really cool and made him seem like the charmer of France. When you see Johnny as Roux he brings together that life-force so to speak that all women have wanted to see him become. When I saw Roux playing the guitar, Johnny seemed almost like his normal self because he plays the guitar as well as acting.
Lasse Hallström directs this film to be half kids-half adults because of the emotional story and with the chocolate and comedy involved within. Well, we all know what kids are like with chocolat. The script was written from a novel so it made it a bit easier to get the hang on when writing the script and trying to get the audience's attention.
This was in a way quite lucky that it earned a Best Picture nomination. One thing that disappointed me was that it was very slow moving and I didn't get the ending. Juliette Binoche was fantastic but was better in The English Patient. Judi Dench did an awesome job too but liked her more in Notes On A Scandal, Casino Royale and Shakespeare In Love. Not one of Depp's best films but certainly one of his most charming characters. Chocolat is a really good film of 2000 that does deserve to be watched and seen for the viewing pleasure of the story and characters within it.
8/10
