Charming. That word keeps coming to me every time I try and describe this movie to anyone. It's a movie about a charming little town in France full of charmingly eccentric characters who all have charming interactions. The whole movie is just aggresively charming.
 To be a bit more specific, the story takes place in a small town in France in the late 1950s. The mayor keeps the town under very tight grip, making sure that everybody goes to church and behaves in just the proper way. This forced calm is disrupted by the arrival of Vianne (Binoche) and her daughter Anouk (Thivisol). Vianne sets up a chocolate shop, during Lent no less, and immediately starts tempting the townspeople with her goodies. The mayor, Comte de Reynaud (Molina), is outraged by her behavior and failure to attend church.
Vianne quickly becomes friends with her grouchy old landlady Armande (Dench), who becomes quickly addicted to her hot chocolate. There are several sub-plots involving Armande's daughter and grandson, a group of Irish gypsy that descend on the town and a woman who comes to stay with Vianne after her husband beats her.
The movie's tone is intensely cheerful, turning sad only a couple times in an attempt to develop a bit more depth to the story. Binoche just radiates warmth with her omnipresent smile into every available scene. Her daughter has a cute invisible friend to perk up scenes with. There is a happy reunion between Armande and her grandson. And so on and so on.
There is a constant theme of stagnation and intolerance that runs just beneath the constant cheeriness. The town is oh so perfect but it's that way because nothing is allowed to change. New things are frowned upon and so are new people, particularly people who are different. Vianne represents everything the town is against. She doesn't go to church and might even be some sort of pagan priestess. She constantly tempts people with her sinful treats. That conflict is what keeps the story churning along, although the course is pretty predictable from early on. We get the moral almost instantly and the rest of the movie is just piling on.
The movie is very well shot to take full advantage of the beauty of the small walled town it's set in. The performances are solid and in the case of Judi Dench, excellent. She has a real talent for making her characters very honest and believable. You never doubt her actions or logic for a second.
The actual candy chocolate is a pretty good analogy for the movie as a whole. It's sweet and tasty but if you eat too much of it you'll get sick. The movie is sweet and charming and looks great but it doesn't take long before the excessive cheer begins to cause a touch of nausea in the viewer.
- John Shea
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