"Chocolat" on BLU RAY – A Review Of The 2000 Lasse Hallstrom Film

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"…Live A Little!" – Chocolat on BLU RAY

Every one of the dry-as-a-leaf townsfolk in Mayor Comte De Reynaud's sleepy French hamlet "...knows their place in the scheme of things..." And if they forget their Christian values preached to them weekly in the stone cold church - the good Mayor is there to give the new young priest of 5 weeks (Hugh O'Connor) a helping hand with his sermons - and thereby get 'their' obedient flock back on the moral straight and narrow. Reynaud also waits patently and penitently for his wife to return from one of her interminable 'trips' - watched over his devoted secretary Caroline (the beautiful Carrie Anne Moss). But perhaps the hard-working and essentially decent Mayor (a fabulous turn by England's Alfred Molina) should just chill out and "measure goodness by what we embrace" - or maybe even recognize the lovely Caroline's devotion as genuine and worthy. But the Comte is too busy being pious and upright for the entire town - to engage in something that life-enhancing and delicious...

Besides that's the least of his carnal worries - because a sly wind is blowing in from the North - bringing with it a voluptuous woman of independent-mind (Juliette Binoche) who is going to open a decadent nay sinful chocolate parlour in Lent - a time of abstinence, reflection and tranquillity. And when this shop "Choclataire Maya" opens - Mayor Reynaud knows deep down in his starched flannel trousers that it will seduce the town - especially the women. And the next thing you know - they'll be shagging their husbands senseless again - leaving the drunken abusive ones behind (Peter Stormare as Serge) - cavorting with travelling river people who play guitars and talk in odd Irish accents (Johnny Depp as Roux) and generally enjoying all manner of lurid sensory pleasure. "It's important to now one's enemy..." the Mayor muses ominously.

Adapted from Joanne Harris' beloved novel by Robert Nelson Jacobs - Lasse Hallstrom's feature film (he also did "The Cider House Rules" - see separate review) garnished five Academy Award nominations - including one for Best Movie. And it's easy to see why. It has a magical and very visual story with fantastically strong parts for women. And it has chocolate - lots and lots of sweets, biscuits, cake and chocolate. You can get fat just looking at this film.

The cast is varied and uniformly superb: French acting and dancing legend Leslie Caron is an elderly town lady admired and longed for by Monsieur Bierot (a lovely show by England's John Wood). There's Judy Dench in full-on spiky mode as the ballsy old biddy Armande (nominated for Supporting Actress - her dialogue titles this review) who rents out the former patisserie to Mademoiselle Vianne (Juliet Binoche in luminous form). Vianne's dreamy daughter Anouk (a delightful Victoire Thivisol) plays with an imaginary kangaroo - but is tired of wandering from town to town with her rootless mother - prone to leaving in an instant when the wind tells her to go.

But as mum's culinary skills with South American cocoa and the dark evil liquid begins to affect the town folk in positive ways - especially a broken lady called Josephine (Lena Olin - who is Lasse Hallstrom's wife in real life) - the wandering Vianne senses that perhaps this hamlet is where her roots should be planted. In fact perhaps the town and its earnest but lost Mayor need her. And there's also the added enticement of that handsome rogue the Deppster to deal with - all gypsy and sexy shirts and dishevelled hair and guitars and good with fixing doors and making her daughter happy. Easy to resist that...eh...

Defaulted to Aspect ratio 1.78:1 - the BLU RAY picture fills the entire screen (no bars bottom or top) - but is a strange mixture of the ordinary and exceptional. I suspect in order to give the movie that slightly dreamy feel - there is a soft focus on a lot of it - and subtle grain is ever present. But there are also moments that are truly beautiful when you least expect it - down by the river at night, the feast to celebrate a 70th birthday in the garden, Alfred Molina trying to turn Serge into a gentleman in his home. It doesn't ever look bad - it's just not as stunning as you'd expect such a sensuous film to be.

Audio is DTS-HD Master Audio Surround 5.1 and Subtitles are in English and English For The Hearing Impaired (a poor showing fro such an International film frankly). The Extras feature all the principal actors as well as legendary Hollywood Producer David Brown (Jaws, The Verdict, A Few Good Men).

"Chocolat" is a classy piece of filmmaking - a sensory uplifting watch with passion truffles, cups of chilli-flavoured hot chocolate and Nipples of Venus.

Give it a nibble you sinners...

"Blow" on BLU RAY – A Review Of The Ted Demme 2001 Film

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"…I'd Broken A Promise…" – Blow on BLU RAY

It’s the summer of 1968 and ‘Boston’ George Jung of New England Massachusetts (Johnny Depp) arrives on Manhattan Beach in California with $300 dollars in his pocket and his rotund childhood best buddy 'Tuna' in tow (Ethan Suplee of My Name Is Earl). Every girl is gorgeous and says things like "right on", "groovy" and "solid". And everyone - but everyone - is getting stoned smoking Pot. 

It’s a far cry from his constantly bickering parents Fred and Ermine Young (Ray Liotta and Rachel Griffiths). His Dad is a Plumber/Heating Contractor who slaves 7 days a week for his half-crazy high-aspirations wife who keeps leaving him and coming back again. Both are always two minutes away from financial foreclosure. George worships his father Fred as a dependable blue-collar hero - but determines he will never be like that - or them – and absolutely never be that kind of parent to his own children…

One afternoon in their Californian beach apartment – armed with a huge bag of quality grass - blond-haired George and a giggling Tuna hook up with Kevin Dulli. Dulli (Max Perlich) is another college dropout who tells the hippy pair that he’s never smoked Pot this good before. Kevin also points out that there are 100,000 rich college kids back East who would pay handsomely for such quality. George gets an idea to make easy money and visits his supplier Derek Foreal (Paul Reubens) - a gay who owns a men’s hair salon. And soon he is using Derek, Air Hostess Barbara (a beach girl he’s fallen in love with played by Franka Potente from The Bourne films) and his pal Dulli to courier Pot from LAX to BOS airports via her two suitcases that never get checked because she’s staff.

Now demand is outstripped supply – so they go to the source in Mexico and literally ask on the streets for a hook up with a Pot dealer. They get what they want and are soon flying in a single-engine Cessna (with the pilot door missing) into a private strip and start dealing big time. George, Tuna, Dulli and Barbara buy a gaudy multi-layered Canyon mansion with their illicit gains - working hard and partying even harder by the pool. But when George’s parents come to visit – they can’t figure out where all the money’s coming from? And on it goes to Columbia in 1976 where George meets with the ruthless drug baron Pablo Escobar (Cliff Curtis) and soon Dulli and George haven’t enough room to fit thirty million dollars in cash in their apartment’s closet.

But in between all of this 'living-the-dream' lifestyle comes the first of many disappointments and heartbreaks. George gets busted in Chicago in 1972 with 622 kilos of Grass and is charged with intent to distribute; he gets two years prison time. But following a nosebleed at dinner with his parents – it transpires that his beloved girlfriend Barbara has cancer - and literally doesn’t have two years to wait for him. And while in prison George meets with even worse – a South American called Diego (Jordi Molla) with a sweet and persuasive tongue - asking the money-hungry George has he ever dreamt of ‘cocaine’…

"Blow" is a story film – and a long one at that. Acapulco 1972 becomes Florida 1987 morphing into California 1990  – and you’re presented with one long litany of narcotic clichés - addiction, greed, sex, paranoia, stupidity, double-crossing friends, physical depravation and what the lack of willpower will do to a person.

It’s undoubtedly cool too – the house parties – the naked girls – lines off tables – fancy restaurants – and a trophy Columbian wife Mirtha (Penelope Cruz) who is the probably the most desirable woman on the planet. There’s even possible redemption for George when he and Mirtha have a daughter Kristina (Emma Roberts) whom he adores with his whole being. Maybe he will clean up for her…

But on his 38th birthday George uses his 6-year old daughter with devastating lifetime results (dialogue above). Still - maybe he’ll get a second chance at the age of 42 (but now looking like he’s 92) as he tapes an apology to his aging and broken father Fred that he hopes will make amends somehow. He quotes their father-child mantra "…Dance With The Stars…" which now seems like a cruel and sad echo from the past…

The BLU RAY picture is superlative throughout. It’s Anamorphic 2.35:1 Aspect Ratio (bars top and bottom) but even stretched to Full Aspect – it still looks top dog all the way through (especially in the sunnier destinations). Audio is English 5.1 Dolby Digital and English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD with a Subtitle of English for the Hard Of Hearing. 

The Extras include Focus Points, Behind The Story, George Jung Interview, Music Video, Production Diary, Trailers, Additional Scenes and Character Outtakes.

Adapted for Screenplay by David McKenna and Nick Cassavetes from a book by Bruce Porter, co-Produced by Denis Leary and Directed by Ted Demme - "Blow" tells the true life-story of George Jung and cocaine without fudging the obvious. There are a lot of films about drugs but few of them deal with the bitter reality – especially when it comes to the personal devastation not just to yourself – but also to those who surround you.

Is Ted Demme’s 2001 film about Cocaine and addiction – or is it about what drugs do to your family, your children, your friends, your precious time on this planet, your very soul. It starts out all Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers cool - where everyone is your lover and friend – but ends up a nightmare - doing a 40-year stretch – walking alone in a Prison Compound with mirages in your head – a life wasted - everything you love and care about in the world ostracized.

Incarcerated in 1994 - Federal Inmate 19225004 is due for parole in 2015 - aged 72. Check this film out but be prepared to shed a tear…