Netflix, Miramax 2000
American, closed captions
2h 1m

Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! I don’t know how many times I’ve seen Chocolat, starring Johnny Deep, Judi Dench and others, and I just now learned it’s really a story of Paganism v. Christianity. Fortunately, the pagan has chocolate on her side 😉 All this time I marveled at Depp’s acting, at Judi Dench’s character and the stories that unfold in the village. And how a nomadic mother and her young 6-year-old daughter come to a French town that is pretty hide-bound and arrive at the beginning of Lent to open a chocolat shop. 

She shocks the Mayor of the village when she tells him she’s never been married and doesn’t attend church. The Mayor has his own problems as his wife has left him, but he won’t admit it. The old lady from whom the shop is rented is estranged from her daughter who won’t let her see her grandson. Gypsies arrive on river boats and are shunned. And no one understands our heroine who hires a Gypsy (Johnny Depp) to do some work, who attends a party the Gypsies throw, who works the magic of her chocolate on all in the little village. And that chocolat is magic.

If you haven’t seen Chocolat, or if it’s been a few years, it’s time to see it again perhaps for the first time. One of the all-time bestest movies ever! Oh, and the Priest. He’s wonderful.

This movie has an R rating for its positive messages about acceptance, living life to the fullest, and love. It also contains a wee teensy bit of sexual content and discussions of illegitimacy. Which really only exists in America and I imagine, Islamic countries. Other countries aren’t that hung up on whether the mother is married or not. A child is a child is a child. 

Chocolat trailer