Movie · 2000 · Comedy, Drama, Romance · 2h 1m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 4.3/10 (319.1K ratings)
One taste is all it takes.
Overview
In the winter of 1959, a single mother and her young daughter arrive in a rural French town, where they open an unusual chocolate shop that disrupts the moral fiber of the strictly Catholic townsfolk and mayor.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.3/10
IMDb: 7.2/10
Letterboxd: 3.44/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 63%
Metacritic: 64
TMDB: 7.0/10
Director
Lasse Hallström
Production
Miramax, David Brown Productions
Cast
Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Alfred Molina, Lena Olin, Johnny Depp, Hugh O'Conor, Carrie-Anne Moss, John Wood, Peter Stormare, Leslie Caron, Victoire Thivisol, Aurelien Parent Koenig, Ron Cook, Élisabeth Commelin, Antonio Gil, Hélène Cardona, Gaelan Connell, Michèle Gleizer, Christianne Oliveira, Guillaume Tardieu
Where to watch
fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, MGM Plus, Philo
Curator Review
Verdict
A warm, gently subversive crowd-pleaser with strong performances, lush food imagery, and an appealing clash between sensual pleasure and small-town repression. It can feel a little polished and schematic, but the charm, humor, and emotional clarity make it easy to recommend.
Best for
viewers who like feel-good dramas with a romantic edge
fans of food-centered movies and sensory storytelling
people interested in stories about outsiders changing a community
audiences who enjoy soft-edged anti-conservative fables
Skip if
you want sharp realism or psychological complexity
you dislike sentimental, storybook-style filmmaking
you’re not in the mood for a very tidy moral conflict
Overview
Chocolat is a glossy, comforting fable that uses dessert as a weapon against repression. Its pleasures are obvious but effective: the winter village setting, the tactile close-ups of sweets, and Juliette Binoche’s easy, luminous presence give the movie a steady flow of warmth and mischief. It’s less interested in realism than in mood, appetite, and the social ripple effects of one woman refusing to behave properly.
Worth noting
The film’s politics are broad but readable, framing pleasure, tolerance, and female independence as threats to a rigid community order. Judi Dench and Alfred Molina bring texture to what could have been simple types, and the ensemble keeps the movie from becoming purely decorative. The romance is secondary to the larger idea of liberation through kindness, food, and self-possession.
Bottom line
It does lean into Oscar-bait prettiness and can feel a bit too neatly arranged, especially if you want sharper satire. But as a piece of accessible adult comfort cinema, it works: charming, lightly provocative, and built around a very specific kind of wish fulfillment.
Top Letterboxd reviews
rach (4.5★) · 2165 likes
the way this film is essentially chocolate vs christianity is sending me
Alex Kittle (4★) · 1622 likes
Despite the heterosexy-looking poster this movie is mostly about women helping women and the stupidity of religious conservatism. It's got cute fashions, lovely locations, a range of real and fake French accents, and plentiful uses of the "mmmm" face when someone bites into something tasty. I dug it a lot.
fran hoepfner (3★) · 587 likes
french for chocolate fyi
James Reynov (3★) · 571 likes
Lies That The Poster Of Chocolat Told Me About Chocolat
1. That Johnny Depp would have a major part in the film (he only arrives 54 minutes in).
2. That Johnny Depp would sexily eat chocolate, or be sexy and feed chocolate to Juliette Binoche, but he actually eats a worm.
3. That Johnny Depp would be a sexy casanova, instead of a river rat gypsy.
4. That this movie would focus on the romance between Johnny Depp and Juliette… more