Better Than Chocolate (1999)

in my opinion, "better than chocolate" is not the awesome movie that some people call it on this site, but it is also not an absolute failure. it is a typical love story between two lesbians. the plot seems very recycled as well. the mother and teenage brother of one of the girls decides to move in because of her recent divorce, and, of course, the mother doesn't know that her daughter's "friend" that is also living with her is really her lover.of course, there are a few side plots in addition to this. for example, maggie, one of the girls, works in a bargain bookstore that sells mostly sexually explicit-type books. the owner of the bookstore ordered some books and the shipment is held at the border by customs because of the pornographic material.there are also some love stories on the side as well. for example, a bisexual friend of maggie's falls in love with her teenage brother that moves in. also the lesbian bookstore owner starts having a relationship with a transsexual. he is getting ready to have a sex change operation to turn him into a woman.i also thought it was funny when maggie's mother finds the box of dildos underneath the bed and uses one of them (no nudity shown here). as far as the nudity and sex scenes go, i don't find that much of it too explicit so if that is all your looking for, look further, but i definitely do not think it is for children because the few sex scenes that are in this movie do get somewhat hot.overall, the movie was good but nothing special!

To be honest, I had not heard about this movie until last week when I saw a poster advertising it as a free show at the university I work at with a led discussion to follow. I read a brief bit of it before going into it, though other than knowing it was going to deal with homosexual topics, I had no other expectations.My first thoughts on the movie was that it was like a fantasy. There were many stereotypes, and many of those were portrayed almost to an extreme. The main characters faced little to no gay opposition or hardships that would be expected. There were at least 2 subplots underlying the main plot which I think detracted from the focus. What was the message supposed to be? Was this supposed to be an artistic movie or a movie to educate, because it definitely wasn't a blockbuster aim like Brokeback Mountain.There were definitely too much cliché and stereotypes for my likes. Since it is an older film, the group I was in discussed if the time of the material was a factor. I pointed to a movie about gay men like The Wedding Banquet from the early 90s as a better movie in my opinion because it was better scripted and the plot lines weren't too diverse.Was this supposed to be an exploration of gender issues? As a romantic comedy, sad to say, I'd probably rather watch a Hugh Grant movie. However, would I see this movie again? Sure. Would I recommend it to people? Sure, if they don't mind the nudity or sexual issues dealing with lesbians. I give it a 5 because I found portions I could identify with because of my friends. Parts of the movie drew me in; I laughed, I felt pain. The acting wasn't bad, the filmography was pretty good, the soundtrack was good, the direction could have been better.

I have seen this film twice and still find it charming, funny, and touching. I would consider it in the "Romantic Comedy" category of movies, but a particularly good one, and including the sex scenes that most movies in that genre show only in shadow. Although I didn't find it particularly sexy because I'm not attracted to women, I still love watching this film. The characters are extremely believable. Even though it is a relatively light-hearted picture it manages to explore not only issues of sexual identity, but parental acceptance, the ability of a woman to move-on after divorce, the importance of following your dreams, and even how to deal with hate.

This movie can be summarized with one word: awful. The cinematography, the plot lines, the beginning, middle and end were just awful. As this seemingly low-budget movie tried to take an outdated political stance and a certain pride dealing with queer issues, it fails to capture the audience of today by both alienating the unexpected viewer with pornographic images and a thin/weak theme. Chocolate presents confusing and mixed messages about women's, more specifically queer women's sexuality and politics (IE The movie over-sexualized lesbians in a pornographic way as to entice straight male viewers while trying to instill pro-queer values in the same viewers). The awfulness of the plot was all topped off with an even more awful Hallmark ending presented by these horrible actors. Do yourself a favor and avoid this movie like the plague, if anything it is a counter production of the queer rights movement.