Customer Reviews

Chocolat: a Screenplay

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This is an unfortunate occurence. Miramax has taken an enjoyable and well written novel and gutted it of it's emotional intensity, presumably in an effort to make it more palatable to the movie going masses. Pere Reynaud and Vianne Rocher are very similar--both want to bring good to the little village in which they both now reside. Unfortunately, both characters are prisoners in some way to the past, and in particular to their childhoods, and this has interesting bearing on how they both exert their influence on the people who live around them. Both are very admirable, in their own way, for the strength of their beliefs and convictions and the book is realistic about how each character both benefits and suffers for them. Sadly, these facets are lost in the screenplay which, in typical Hollywood fashion, has chosen to make the story cozy and homespun and painfully predictable. The characters and the story have become totally one dimensional, and sadly have lost the flavor the author originally injected them with.