MFFF REVIEW: MONSIEUR CHOCOLAT
6/10
France, early 19th century.
The famous clown Footit is down on his luck. No one likes his act any more and
no one will employ him. When he stumbles on an act of a black man pretending to
be cannibal he immediately has a plan. Soon a comedic duo is born and the
charismatic Chocolat quickly outshines his white master. Will Chocolat survive
the test of wealth and fame and will he be able to be something more on stage
than a black man caricature being kicked about by a white guy?
The best thing about
MONSIEUR CHOCOLAT is its casting. Omar Sy of INTOUCHABLES fame is CHOCOLAT and
JAMES THIERREE (the grandson of Charlie Chaplin himself) as his white mentor
Footit are fabulous and charismatic in their roles, and embody the spirits of
their prototypes. Supporting roles are filled with fine French actors with a
special mention going to Noemie Lvovsky in the role of the spiteful Madame
Delvaux, the circus owner. A queen of episodic roles, Lvovsky’s presence makes
any film she is in just so much better.
Director Roschdy Zem
has mostly had an acting career and has only a few directing roles under his
belt. He works with fine material in MONSIEUR CHOCOLAT, but seems confused
about the final message of the film. The script gets a little lost, borrowing
from many episodes of the real lives of CHOCOLAT and FOOTIT, and struggles to
find its focus until the very end.
The film has fantastic
production values, the Paris of Belle Epoch comes alive with many details and
the costumes are fabulous. But the film is overly long, and juggling many
characters, who seem to walk into the movie and then stumble out, proves to be
challenging.
MONSIEUR CHOCOLAT gives justice to the world and the circus atmosphere
the real CHOCOLAT and FOOTIT lived in, but their story is clumsily told,
overloaded with secondary characters that never find resolution. Saying that,
MONSIEUR CHOCOLAT is by no means a bad film, but it would have
benefitted from a tighter script and a shorter running time.
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