#81 - Chocolat (2000)

I watched this movie with one of my classes, as kind of a post-test reward.  I've shown it to a few of my classes in the past and it's been largely a success.  It's easy to get the girls behind the film, because they all swoon at Johnny Depp.  The guys are a tougher sell (despite her gorgeousness, the guys don't really "go for" Juliette Binoche) but everyone pretty much tends to pay attention (which actually says a lot).

When I first saw this movie ten years ago (I still remember being in high school when I saw it), I remember loving it.  I thought it was beautiful, endearing, well-acted.  I liked it a lot more than Erin Brockovich and, actually, Gladiator (not an opinion I still hold), but not as much as Chicken Run.  Weird what I remember, but I distinctly had conversations about these movies with my friend in the band room during lunch, so without looking them up, I know they all came out around the same time.

In any case, I've seen this film probably a good dozen or so times since then and I have come to the conclusion that it comes much closer to mediocreland than I thought upon first viewing.  Don't get me wrong: it's a very nice movie.  The acting is good, the cinematography is very nice, the movie has a pleasant feel to it, the story is passable... it's just that there's nothing that is exceptional.  Roberts beat Binoche for the Oscar in 2000, which I was pissed about then.  Now, I'm pissed, armed with the knowledge that she also beat Ellen Burstyn's pill-popping Grandma in Requiem for a Dream.  But I'm digressing.

There's nothing really wrong with Chocolat, which makes it a better movie than many, as well as one that can easily be recommended to a large range of people (nothing to offend, alienate, or otherwise mystify in here, at all).  It requires little thought (though viewers who pay close attention will be drawn, like me, into the story of Vienne's (Binoche's) lineage) and follows a well-known, much-loved formula.  Pariahdom begets welcoming, I guess.  Overall, I had a tough time scoring this one, for all the different facets this movie means for/to me, so regardless of whether you feel my score matches my synopsis is of the least concern to me (as it should be for you in all cases).

Score: 8/10