The unyielding morality of a small, rural French town is strained when single mother Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche) arrives with her young daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol) early in 1959, just as Lent begins. Across the town square from the church, Vianne opens Chocolaterie Maya, featuring exotic chocolates made from pre-Columbian Mayan recipes. Vianne’s special gift is to be able to guess each customer’s favorite, and as she gradually wins over the townspeople, the rigid mayor Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina) believes he’s in a battle with the Devil for their souls, and he enlists his young priest Pere Henri (Hugh O'Conor) to get his message across.
This delightful, character-driven, romantic comedy-drama features an outstanding supporting cast including Judi Dench and Carrie-Anne Moss as an estranged mother and daughter, Lena Olin who takes refuge with Vianne and learns the craft of chocolate making, and Johnny Depp as Roux, a gypsy who lives on the river in a houseboat. If you’ve forgotten how sensual, decadent and delicious chocolate, in all its forms, can be, Chocolat will reawaken those memories.
Labels: comedy, drama, food, romance, Fifties
IMDb 72/100
MetaCritic (critics=64. viewers=67)
RottenTomatoes (critics=64, viewers=83)
Blu-ray
Blogger's comment: At the end of the film Pere Henri gives a short Easter Sunday sermon which I have transcribed because it speaks to what we as Americans are enduring at this moment in 2026:
I'm not sure what the theme of my homily today ought to be. Do I want to speak of the miracle of our Lord's divine transformation? Not really, no. I don't want to talk about His divinity. I'd rather talk about His humanity. I mean, you know, how He lived His life here on earth. His kindness. His tolerance. Listen, here's what I think. I think we can't go around measuring our goodness by what we don't do. By what we deny ourselves, what we resist and and who we exclude. I think we've got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include.
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