Chocolat - Juliette Binoche

This is a magical movie; literally. They are subtle. Vianne, (Juliette), "blows in with the North wind" to a provincial French village that needs her gifts badly. She opens a chocolate shop. She has a gift to know what people need and give it to them.

There is pushback of course. Mostly led by the Mayor, Comte de Raynaud, (Alfred Molina). But person, by person, Vianne wins them over.

I really resonate with the movie. I love to cook and love to cook for others such as the sick at my church. I try to think what might help them, I pray for them. When they are mortally ill I try to craft food that will bring them a bit of happiness. But I am not magic, I don't even know if my prayers are answered. Watching the movie masterfully touch hearts made me smile.

I really loved the performance of Armande, (Judi Dench). She does a masterful job of playing the older woman, abandoned by her daughter, unable to see and spend time with her grandson.

The turning point, the drama, increases with the arrival of the "river rats", hobos on boats, including Roux, (Johnny Depp). They fit in even less than Vianne and the town is turned against them.

A low point in the movie is when the mayor convinces the pastor to preach against chocolates. Her daughter, Anouk, gets worked over by the other children concerning her mother, the "helper of Satan".

The party for Armande was touching and leads to a series of climaxes. I cannot divulge the endings, but there is a place for this movie on my bookshelf and I intend to watch it again

Bucket List - Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson

Kathy and I watched this movie last night. I turned to the Internet to try to find out what the relationship between Edward, (Jack Nicholson) and Thomas/Matthew, (Sean Hayes) was and learned for the first time, it was reviewed poorly.

Quick reminder, this is not a movie review blog, it is an impressions blog. I have no idea how to critically review a movie. My brother liked it, I liked it. The opening, in McCreath body shop and the close on the mountain, "Because it was against the law" are memorable and open and shut the movie nicely.

My favorite adventure was the car race. To intentionally ram a Shelby, that most be freeing.

I didn't like/get the Carter marriage stranger becomes a husband stuff. I suppose it was important, but I do not know why. I also could not follow the prostitute that Edward hired to seduce Carter conversation, the volume was too low compared to the rest of the movie and we have a decent home theater, but found I did not care enough to rewind and play again.

Overall, it is a good movie, it rates a place on my shelves. When we buy new movies, we chuck older non-performing ones and this one will probably be here for a long while.