Chocolat movie review

Here are some simple rules for life:

1. Never join a religion that denies you chocolate, or for that matter, simple pleasures like food, unless you eat so much that you end with a health emergency.
2. Never support the integration of church and state. It is always a dangerous mix regardless of how politicians and church leaders may want to help each other out to screw the people.
3. Always enjoy what you have. On your death bed, you will not regret what you did, but would surely regret all those places that you did not visit or the time that you did not spend with your family or the things that you did not try.
   

Chocolat is a great movie for anyone who likes chocolate or enjoyed "Like Water For Chocolate." Vianne (Juliette Binoche) and daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol) show up in a tiny French village, where the main square appears to be literally just as big as my backyard (it is important to understand this because it shows how small the minds of the residents were). Vianne does not go to church, does not have a male companion, wears red shoes (rather than black as all other women did), and opens a chocolaterie at a time with Catholics are supposed to resist temptations.

Thus begins the mother of all battles with the mayor Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina) who is literally in bed with the Catholic church and even edits the priest's sermons till they say what he wants to say.

Contrary to his expectations and disappointment, the chocolaterie not only thrives but also becomes a place for all the outcasts (Judy Dench as Armande who wants to enjoy her final years rather than go on a diet to fight her diabetes or Johnny Depp as Roux who as an Irish gypsy is not welcome and battered wife Lena Olin). In the end the whole town is literally licking chocolate off their fingers.

A beautiful family movie with something for people of all ages.