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Chocolat
Miramax Films

Chocolat reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 64 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.4 out of 10
based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 36 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for a scene of sensuality and some violence

Starring Juliette Binoche, Victoire Thivisol, Johnny Depp, Alfred Molina, Judi Dench, and Lena Olin

When Vianne (Binoche), a mysterious stranger, and her child arrive in a tranquil French town in the winter of 1959, nobody could have imagined the impact that she and her spirited daughter would have on this community stubbornly rooted in tradition. (Miramax Films)


GENRE(S): Romance  
WRITTEN BY: Robert Nelson Jacobs
Joanne Harris (novel)
 
DIRECTED BY: Lasse Hallström  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: August 7, 2001 
Video: August 7, 2001 
Theatrical: December 15, 2000 
RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

Received five 2001 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress (Binoche), and Best Supporting Actress (Dench).

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
It's tantalizing, delectable and randy, a movie of melting eroticism and toothsome humor.
91
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
It's built of such exquisite craft -- the acting, the decor, the photography, the music -- that to refuse it is to refuse the very sensations that draw us to art, romance and maybe even life itself.
90
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A work of artistry and craftsmanship at the highest level.
Read Full Review
90
Variety Lael Loewenstein
The most satisfying epicurean feast since "Big Night."
Read Full Review
80
Film.com Tom Keogh
Abittersweet fable about the raw joys of human revival.
Read Full Review
80
Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf
If Hallström has a problem with tone, it lies in his almost supernatural niceness. Thus, what arrives on-screen is purely a man's feminism, simple and trite and beautiful and vital.
Read Full Review
80
TV Guide Frank Lovece
The film burbles with delightful dialogue and a sparkling sense of life.
Read Full Review
80
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
A sinfully scrumptious bonbon.
Read Full Review
80
Mr. Showbiz Kristy Martin
It's so easy to be mesmerized by Chocolat's brilliant indulgences that one abandons reason altogether.
80
Newsweek David Ansen
Chocolat is a seriocomic plea for tolerance, gift-wrapped in the baby blue colors of a fairy tale and served up with a sybaritic smile.
80
LA Weekly Paul Malcolm
While there are scenes of wrenching emotional openness and spontaneous charm -- largely due to the irresistible allure and impeccable craft of its ensemble cast -- the degree of calculation apparent in its plot and images undermines its efforts to move and seduce.
Read Full Review
80
The New York Times A.O. Scott
So assured in its manipulative prowess that only afterward do you realize how fully you've been worked over.
Read Full Review
75
Boston Globe Jay Carr
May not be deep, but it certainly is lip-smacking.
75
New York Post Lou Lumenick
A bittersweet confection that few holiday filmgoers will be able to resist, thanks to melt-in-your-mouth performances by Juliette Binoche, Alfred Molina and Judi Dench.
75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The movie is charming and whimsical, and Binoche reigns as a serene and wise goddess.
Read Full Review
75
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
A charming trifle, beautifully filmed in a Currier & Ives setting, with buttery-smooth performances from Binoche and Depp, and enough good tidings in its nougat center to get you through the holidays.
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70
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
The director (Hallstrom) and cast are all excellent.
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70
Salon.com Charles Taylor
A cozy little ode to sensual and culinary pleasure.
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67
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
It's as agreeably sweet as advertised, with a particularly yummy performance by Juliette Binoche.
Read Full Review
63
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Has an unerring capacity for going soft whenever a hard edge is called for.
63
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Certainly satisfies our hunger for a light, bright dessert, yet it may leave you hungry for more.
63
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Too bad Chocolat isn't as seductive as its leading lady.
50
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Like binging on a bottomless box of truffles: Tastes good and sweet at first, but after a while, you start feeling a little green.
50
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
More sugary than satisfying.
Read Full Review
50
Time Richard Schickel
Made with a sort of tasteful vulgarity, this movie never disappoints the slack-minded audience's anticipation of the humanistically healing banality, the life-crushing behavioral cliché.
Read Full Review
50
USA Today Mike Clark
Never enough goodies to keep the two-hour running time from seeming like three.
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50
San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer
A lighthearted fable with jarring scenes of violence and halfhearted stabs at mystical realism, its saving grace is its gooey center, the luminous Binoche.
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50
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Like its title implies, Chocolat tastes good in the moment but leaves behind little nutritional substance.
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40
Washington Post Desson Thomson
I can only bestow this adaptation of Joanne Harris's bestselling novel with such faint praise as "pleasant" and "mildly disarming."
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30
Village Voice Dennis Lim
Airy, pseudo-folkloric gibberish at best.
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20
Slate David Edelstein
The movie is barely sufferable.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 36 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mer gave it a 10:
Ya the people who gave this movie a 4 or a 2 or whatever do not know what the definition of a good movie is. they are probably the kind of people who like lots of violence massacre scary action-packed movies, and don't like mature movies. It was "a COMPLIMENT to our intelligence, VERY precious, VERY NOT VAPID, and REALISTIC in its feel-goodism." oh yeah and it did have great scenery and casting.

Rachael W. gave it a 10:
I think the cast did an awesome job portraying the charecters. johnny depp and juliette binoche were incredible. it's a movie you can lose yourself in.

Emma gave it a 10:
A dazzling movie! Stresses the importance to accept people for the way they are, and not judging them based on other's opinions. A heartwarming story that'll leave you with a smile on your face!

Pat C. gave it a 7:
Like Chocolate, Binoche is an acquired taste, always forthright and invigorated in a world that imposes the devious and dull. Always count on her as the French equivalent of a Merchant Ivory visit to the provinces.

Layne gave it a 7:
As light a flavor and as sweet as chocolate itself, but with a bitter kick to it. It's good, but shame on the Academy for giving it a Best Picture nod!

Gaston De Gilbert Mulroneygateaux gave it a 9:
Of course it's unrealistic in it's feel-goodism. If it was realistic, it would be very, very depressing. And I don't know to whom Derek L refers when he mentions an actress with one emotion and one facial expression; he puts (Juliette Binoche) in brackets, but that's got to be a non-sequiteur, surely (watch Three Colours Blue, Derek, then we'll talk). Is it really so hard for people to just enjoy a film, to allow a movie to make them smile? That, after all, is all that Chocolat is trying to do. And it accomplishes it. If you'd let it.

Jack D. gave it a 2:
An insult to our intelligence, annoyingly precious, vapid, and unrealistic in its feel-goodism.

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