Chocolat (2000)

This movie is not about chocolate, or an anti-church message, or even the captivating performances of Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp, Alfred Molina, Judy Dench, and the others. It is about community. It is about the hateful intolerance for a good and decent newcomer when community is lacking, because repression and control rule in its stead. In the small town to which Juliette's character arrives, there is no free will or expression of one's God-given gifts, only compulsion and compunction (for decades). Yet this repression cannot stand in the face of Juliette's simple human kindness and hospitality. She sees people and their true hearts' desires (for which chocolate is only a metaphor) as they are, not as the mayor would have them be. Ultimately the mayor is undone because of his denial of his own heart's desires; even then Juliette is respectful and discreet, repaying his past persecutions with kindness. The townsfolk can again speak freely and laugh amongst themselves; children can play in the streets. This is not a message against the church or Christianity but one in favor of what real Christianity and humanity are about. It is a fable against hypocrisy and those who claim to love God yet do the opposite of what he asked them to do. It is a red herring that the lesson on how to be a kind human being comes through a woman who does not go to church; let those who have ears, hear. In the end, Juliette renounces the life of a magical wanderer that has been imposed on her to join the community and the life of the church. She is not against God, only pious behavior gone bad in the name of God. Five stars.