Chocolat (DVD 2001)

Employing chocolate as an amusing metaphor for change (especially when the mayor pigs out on it at the end), this is a story of convention versus freedom, of the established order versus self-expression, and of the tussle between the Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina), the judgmental, bossy mayor, and the free-spirited Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche). She has just arrived in the sumptuous, tucked-away French village of Lansquenet, with her daughter in tow, and caused gossip and upset in her wake.

The mayor ("Boycott immorality!") ensures that everyone gasps with disapproval at her single-mum status, her non-attendance at church, and the fact that she has not only opened a shop quite different to the one which was there before but - big shock - opened a chocolate shop just before Lent. Vianne teams up with another maverick, a local gypsy (Johnny Depp), but soon the village folk are drooling over her chocolate and discovering their own individuality and new sense of freedom. In this plea for tolerance, even the mayor redeems himself.

As befits its filling, this picture is considerably enlivened by chocolate-box charm. Pretty pictures and pretty attitudes are certainly enough for a fair few of the scenes, yet the charm does block the possibility of any real edge. The criticism of authority is so kindly, so nice, that the sting has been removed even before the sideswipes are made.

However, "Chocolat" is an often alluring package, good-looking and attractively wrapped by Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench (as the difficult but hurt old bat who becomes her friend), Lena Olin (as the abused wife who learns to fight back), and director Lasse Hallström who keeps things nice and light. If you can’t be bothered running a nice warm bath, see this instead.

But Chocolat also owes a debt to Disney for its somewhat familiar plot structure and transformational theme. Like Mary Poppins, chocolatier Vianne (Best Actress nominee Juliette Binoche) — with daughter in tow (Victoire Thivisol) and dressed in identical red walking hoods — literally blows into town during a mystical wind. In this grown-up version of Poppins-meets-Pollyanna, the optimistic free spirit sets up shop the week before Lent and tries to convince a repressed bunch of churchgoers under the thumb of a really repressed provincial mayor (the Comte de Reynaud, an Aunt Polly type played by Alfred Molina) to lighten up and live a little. Her specialty? Chocolates from ancient Mayan recipes and a turn of a pre-Columbian wheel to help her predict her customers' favorites. As in Pollyanna, there's an Act Three break-free festival planned for the village, and an all-important first convert (Vianne's landlady, cranky Armande, played by Best Supporting Actress nominee Judi Dench), who becomes a co-conspirator in the plot to transform the townsfolk. There's also a spineless clergyman (Hugh O'Conor), whose sermons are guided and corrected by the High Repressor. After that, though, the similarities cease and the Chocolat gets darker.

Set in 1959 and shot in the sleepy French river village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, Chocolat at its center is an indictment of rigid, pre-'60s Catholicism — especially the trap that the no-divorce tenet creates when a wife leaves her husband, as the Comte's did, or is beaten by her spouse, as with the tavernkeeper's wife. When the battered Josephine (Lena Olin, reunited with fellow Unbearable Lightness of Being alum Binoche) leaves her husband and seeks refuge at the Chocolaterie Maya, the animosity the Comte feels for Vianne takes a nasty turn, and a tragic one when the chocolatier befriends a kindred-spirit group of wandering river gypsies led by the rascally Roux (Johnny Depp). But the tone isn't overwhelmingly heavy at all. Like other magical realist works, Chocolat blends realistic and mystical ingredients in a concoction that's one part drama and one part deadpan comedy. The result? Magic.