Product Details

• Actors: Wendy Crewson, Karyn Dwyer, Christina Cox, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Marya Delver
• Directors: Anne Wheeler
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: December 28, 1999
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (203 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00002CGGH
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,280 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Better Than Chocolate" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

BETTER THAN CHOCOLATE - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

155 of 164 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Screwball romance meets '90's lesbian chic, December 27, 1999

By 

Tcaalaw "Tcaalaw" (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Better Than Chocolate (DVD)

This movie will seem very familiar to most long-time movie watchers as it is in many ways a remake of the vintage screwball comedies of the early '30's but with a decidedly '90's twist.

The heroine of the film is Maggie, a young woman who has dropped out of university to try and find herself as an artist. She also supplements her income from painting by working at a bookstore which serves the LesBiGayT (Lesbian-Bisexual-Gay-Transsexual) community of a small British Columbian town.

Maggie's life is greatly complicated when, on the same day, she begins to fall in love with an itinerant painter named Kim, and she receives word that her mother and teenage brother are going to be coming to town to stay with her. This is particularly problematic because Maggie hasn't disclosed her sexual orientation to her family.

A certain amount of predictable hijinks ensue as Maggie tries to keep her family from deducing the truth about her relationship with Kim. She also, of course, must keep them from figuring out that anything is "out-of-place" about her friends and co-workers. As well, there are several sub-plots introduced to give the film more political relevancy, including Canada's strict censorship laws and the subject of anti-transsexual discrimination in the LesBiGayT community, however they are not especially well developed.

In conclusion, this film is very funny at some points, but moves very predictably at others. It is a rather light-hearted take on lesbian romance and coming-out issues, but the sub-plots occasionally weigh it down. Since most of the sub-plots contained enough potential to be films of their own, the film-makers could have dropped some of them from this picture to spend more time exploring Maggie and Kim's relationship. That said, I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys romantic comedies and has an open mind.

79 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars No Surprises Here..., August 15, 2003

By 

GLBT (Illinois) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Better Than Chocolate (DVD)

There's no shortage of mediocre gay/lesbian movies out these days, in which we follow the trials and tribulations of a group of friends (gay, lesbian, maybe an occasional trans) as they fall in and out of love and do a lot of dancing. "Better than Chocolate" is another one of those movies and it's okay for what it is, but I can't help wishing these movies would aim just a little bit higher.

As with most films in this genre, there's the central love story, here a sort of instant-fall-in-love scenario between two women, both of whom are essentially nice, attractive, etc. The "character flaw" of one is that she lives on the road and always leaves when the going gets tough; the other one's "flaw" is that she hasn't told her mother that she's gay, yet, and hasn't really committed to her identity as a lesbian. So, they fall in love, the mother comes to stay with her daughter, hijinks ensue. There are a few subplots tossed in, the most interesting of which centers around the one transgender character who is hoping (in vain) that her parents have finally accepted her.

The good things about this movie? Well, for one thing, there are a couple of truly erotic scenes between the two main characters, and well done erotica is a rarity in ANY genre of film. Also, there are a couple of song/dance routines that are performed by the main characters that are truly nifty. As a matter of fact, I wish they'd done more of that and less of the soap-opera-y stuff.

Perhaps the biggest flaw in the film is just how predictable it all is. You know who's going to end up together, you know that the mother will eventually find out the truth and, after a bit of shell-shock, will accept her daughter as a lesbian, etc. There are no surprises. And the political subtext (censorship is bad, violent skin-heads are bad, prejudice is bad, etc.) never risks challenging its viewers; it's pretty much a given that anyone who's going to see this movie is going to agree with all the opinions expressed within it.

So, if you're in the mood for yet another gay/lesbian comedy/drama, you could do worse than this one. But don't go into this expecting anything profound or brilliant... "Better than Chocolate" never challenges or surprises, it only re-affirms what's already been said in other, similar movies.

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, February 1, 2003

By 

J. M. Zuurbier (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Better Than Chocolate (DVD)

BETTER THAN CHOCOLATE is a must see movie in my opinion. It centers around Maggie, and her family and friends. Maggie is a lesbian living away from home, and her mom and brother. One night after almost being attacked, she encounters Kim. A few days later she runs into Kim again and they fall for each other. It was very sudden how they got together, within a few weeks saying that they were in love. Maggie's mother Lily and her brother come and live with Maggie, which creates a problem for her. Maggie is not out to her mother and wants to live her life and still maintain to keep her sexuality a secret. She works in a bookstore with Francis and Carla, and their transgendered friend Judy is often around. The story is enriched because it involves many stories which fold together. Lily redefining herself and discovering herself again, Judy finding love with long time crush Frances, Maggie's brother beginning a relationship with Carla, and more. One of the subplots centers around censorship, which was a well used plot in the movie. There is some great scenes, such as the erotic scene with body painting, and Maggie making a statement against censorship by posing nude in the bookstore. Overall a well acted movie, perhaps a bit convinient, but overall entertaining in the end.