Chocolat -- A review

I read this book sometime in January and lowed it. Its a very small book - almost the size of one of the Secret Seven adventures but the story is - simply delicious. No, I am not kidding - there is so much talk of chocolate, types of chocolate, hot chocolate drinks that you will probably drool over the book - if you are not careful :) So, when I saw the movie on Saturday, I was very pleasantly surprised that the movie actually managed to be as good as the book. Now, the Arien refused to watch this movie with me until I informed him that Johnny Depp was acting in it. He started wondering if it was a thriller and I decided to not tell him that it was definitely not a thriller.

I hinted that the movie wud be like Narnia and by then the movie had begun. I was soon glued to it and surprisingly so was the Arien. Now, for the story -- A young lady, Vianne, and her little gal, Anoshka, walk into a small french town on a windy day. The mother sets up a chocolate shop and soon the entire town undergoes various radical changes. The mayor is very shocked to hear that Vianne is unmarried and does not wish to attend mass on sundays. He considers her as a bad influence and tries to stop the townsfolk from visiting her shop and socialising with her.

The movie is great for two reasons: The first, of course, is the cast. The folks picked to play the role were so well-chosen that you are left feeling very comforted. I realized half-way that the old, blunt, cantankerous lady was M (Golden Eye). Seeing Trinity (Matrix) as the obsessive mother who fusses over her son- was fabulous. I did not make the connection until I saw the trailer for Matrix later in the evening :( Alfred Molina, as the mayor who lives by a strict code of moral conduct, is very good. The second is the story itself. At one level, the story deals with magic, chocolate as a solution for most problems that ail the townsfolk and is a fun story. At a deeper level, it deals with conformance. It deals with a young mother who is different. It deals with a person's inability to deal with something or someone who is not like them.

It is actually a movie to be watched on a lazy saturday evening or read when the house is silent and you are free to go back to your world in the magical kingdom... yummy is how I rate this book :)