User Reviews

Part of the problem with this very interesting movie is carelessness or deliberate ambiguity on the part of director Claude Chabrol. The celebrated French master of cinema really is a bit like Alfred Hitchcock in the way he put this film together. He doesn't care so much about the consistency of detail or logic, instead what he strives for, as did Hitchcock, is effect. Begin with a tantalizing premise, build tension, and then come up with a striking ending.

The premise, that of a psychologically disturbed woman of high social and economic status (Mika Muller, played with her usual haunting skill by Isabelle Huppert), whose bizarre nature forces her to poison those around her, satisfies the formula nicely. The tension is maintained by our need to find out exactly what she is doing and why and how it will affect the husband André (Jacques Dutronc), the son Guillaume (Rodolphe Pauly), and the young pianist, Jeanne Pollet (Anna Mouglalis). The ending which is heavily symbolic and deeply psychological however may disappoint some viewers. Note that as the closing credits run down the screen, Mika cries and then curls up catatonically on the couch next to a black Afghan in the shape of a spider web. She is the spider at the side of the web waiting for something to fall into it. She can't help herself. That is her nature. And that is why she cries for herself. And notice that her husband does not hate her or rage against her. Instead he seems to have pity upon her as he plays a funereal piece on the piano.

Personally what disappointed me--although I still think this is an excellent film--is the way the ambiguity about Jeanne's paternity is handled. Obviously we can tell by the photos on the wall of the tragically deceased Lisbeth that Jeanne is indeed her daughter since she looks exactly like her. In fact in the next scene Jeanne unconsciously apes the pose in the photo by putting the palms of her hands to either side of her face as André watches. Another problem with the film is that nobody except the audience seems struck by the exact similarity.

Additionally, the truth of her paternity is obscured by Jeanne's mother saying that the mixup at the maternity ward was straightened out to everyone's satisfaction, and besides (almost as an afterthought) she reveals that her husband was not the father, that instead she was inseminated by an unknown donor. This silliness could easily be resolved by DNA testing since the movie, which was released in 2000, is set in contemporary France. Chabrol uses a lab to establish what drug Mika is putting in the chocolate. Why not use a lab to establish paternity? Part of the reason may simply be that the novel upon which the movie is based "The Chocolate Cobweb" was written by the American mystery writer Charlotte Armstrong in the 1950's, before the age of DNA testing.

The real answer however is that Chabrol didn't bother, just as he didn't bother cleaning up some other ambiguities, like why the son does not confront Mika after he is told by Jeanne that Mika is drugging him. Or why Mika deliberately spills the drugged chocolate intended for Guillaume onto the floor, allowing her to be surreptitiously observed by Jeanne through a reflection in the glass of one of the photos. The spilling seems purely a plot device to allow Jeanne a reason to get the chocolat analyzed. Furthermore, we presume that Mika, who is very rich, remarries André because she loves him or admires him or wants to be with him. And it can be seen that he would want to remarry her because of her wealth, her beauty, her elegance, etc. However, it is revealed near the end of the film that he had all along suspected her of causing Lisbeth's death since he says something like "You also washed the glasses the night Lisbeth died." He knew.

One can even go to the extent of analyzing this by saying that Mika is the black widow and André finds her irresistible. Note the scene in which he suggests they make love to have a daughter and she puts him off by saying that he would be ineffective since he has already taken his Rohypnol. She says, next time before he takes his sleep potion they will do it. Furthermore notice that EVERY night he falls into a drugged sleep since he is addicted to Rohypnol. Perhaps this nightly occurrence is pleasant to Mika, in a sense an acting out of the black widow's mating ritual again and again.

Nonetheless, this idea of a woman helpless against her own nature seems a bit unsatisfying. We want something more. And what she does to satisfy her urges leaves us a bit mystified. It seems hardly enough. She drugs the chocolate that she lovingly makes for Guillaume and Jeanne. Why only this? Why this at all? The logic is that she needs to excrete her poison, like a spider. The very act of doing it is what satisfies her need. The fact that somebody could take the drug and then fall asleep at the wheel of a car really is beside the point.

This tale of the dark psychology within the human soul is the sort of thing that attracts Isabelle Huppert as an actress. She has played in her distinguished career a number of roles that require evil in the human soul. This is one of the more subtle ones. For one of the more striking, see her in The Piano Teacher (2001).

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'Merci pour la chocolat' combines the two most characteristic tones of late Chabrol - the grim, relentless Langian formalism carried over from his great mid-period to films like 'La Ceremonie'; and the more relaxed, comic works like 'Cop Au Vin' or 'Rien ne va plus'. the seriousness can be found within a plot about individual and family tragedy; the treatment is never flippant, and the ending is numbing. The 'fun', if you want to call it that, arises from Chabrol's winking contract with his audience, offering a magnificently contrived story about parents and children, possible switches of babies, boyfriends who conveniently happen to be trainee forensic scientists, and so can check chocalate stains for poison: adding up to a mystery story whose solution is actually revealed in the first half hour.

The fun lies not in who done it - there are no other suspects, there may not even be a crime - but what is going on in the heroine's head, with Chabrol littering clues and red herrings. He is gloriously helped by Isabelle Huppert's obfuscating performance, her character's fundamental blankness - she is an observer judging others' reactions - is varied by vacuousness; hysteria; somnolence; good humour; tenderness; calculation. Which of these, if any, are the 'real' Mika? In a film characteristically loaded with allusions to Greek mythology, Mika is Arachne, a spider caught in her own web (appropriately the design on her sofa as her defeat sinks in, suggesting it was never her web in the first place, but that of the bourgeoisie to which she, as an orphaned outsider, never truly belonged), every cunning plan never bringng her closer to the object of her desire, the wearyingly narcissistic Polonski.

Of course, Chabrol achieves his effects more subtly than mere plot leg-pulling - as the allusion to Fritz Lang suggests, it is the smoothly unstable playing with point of view that unsettles our attempts at definitive explanations. It might be going too far to suggest that Chabrol's method in the film is Cubist, but he has an unsettling habit of breaking up sequences, cutting between camera positions as if he is starting a new scene, although it's just another angle on the same one. This can happen when he shifts the focus from one group of characters in a scene to another; more distractingly, it can happen within one group itself, breaking up a conversation with camera angles, or colour tones that don't match.

Despite the title and the central McGuffin about poisoned chocolate, the film's governing metaphor is the music that frequently punctuates the narrative (Liszt's 'Funerailles'!). The central structural unit, the preserve of that other Chabrol idol, Hitchcock, is the double or reproduction - the film begins with a once-married couple remarrying, the officiary and 'bride' sharing the same red hair. The main action towards which the narrative leads doubles an action that shadows the entire film (the death of the first wife), right down to the son suffering the same ankle injury.

The plot is full of parents and their children, many of dubious certainty about their relationships. In the piano sequences, the original pieces are doubled by the pianists' interpretations (further reproduced in a recording Polonski and Jeanne listen to), on two pianos reflecting their bourgeois surroundings; they become a weird kind of incestuous sublimation.

All this doubling and reproduction serves to further isolate Mika, a ganging up on her in terms of form and content, increasing a sympathy enlisted enlisted by Huppert's acting, and achieving a kind of empty tragedy.

Jeanne (Anna Mouglalis)discovers she may have been swapped accidentally at birth---although everyone denies it and downplays it. Her father if the swap occurred would have been Andre Polanski (Jacques DeTrone) both of them are pianists so it seems to fit--but no one is taking it too seriously except Polanski's wife Mika (Isabelle Huppert). She is not amused.

We find out as the story unfolds that she drugged Polanski's first wife causing a car wreck in which she died. This dead woman would have been Jeanne's mother if a swap occurred and they look just alike--same receding chin etc...

Enough of the story. As another reviewer noted this is a yuppiefied upper middle class tour de force with fake piano playing and everyone is a Doctor or in the Arts (or rich).

My problems with this movie: It is goes nowhere; Jeanne knows Mika drugs and possibly poisons rivals 15 minutes into the movie but in the next hour and half of movie time she eats and drinks everything and agrees to stay at their house for 2 days and drive a car after drinking spiked coffee. Nothing happens!

The denouement is meaningless... I liked the reviewer who said Detrone is like a zombie---how true--I even thought a zombie who looks a little campy with plucked eyebrows. In the denouement nothing happens...Detrone the Zombie confronts Huppert about the drugging and death of his first wife in a deadpan non-emotional manner and then sort of shrugs and goes to playing the piano after also learning his son and Jeanne have been in an accident that very night. Huppert starts crying and then the movie credits start rolling and it ends.

Like the reviewer who said Claude Chabrol produces so many films that most of them are chaff.... how true of this one. Chabrol needs to retire. Almost all creative people: authors artists musicians directors etc... peak with a half dozen or so really good works and then burn out. At best endlessly repeating themselves...at worst producing really bad stuff.

3 or 4 stars out of 10...There are so many better films of this genre-- try The Double Hour.

Any rating higher than 2-2.5 stars out of 4 for "Merci pour le chocolat" is sheer critical prejudice in favor of French cinema in general. This dull thriller is subtle to the point of lethargy, relentlessly talky and lacks credibility (at the end Mouglalis agrees to drive Huppert's car, at night, on a twisty mountain road, even though she practically knows that she has just been poisoned with sleeping pills!). At least piano-music aficionados will get an earful...

Claude Chabrol, a man that has distinguished himself for showing the nasty things people do one another, is at it again. Although "Merci pour le chocolat" is not one of his best contributions to the genre, it has a subtlety that shows he is was still up to his tricks when he made this movie.

Mika Muller, was married briefly to the man she now calls her husband, the weary-eyed Andre Polonsky, a talented pianist. Mika loves to prepare chocolate, a specialty she has known well, being as she is, connected to the industry. She also loves to lace her brews with a substance that will induce sleeping to whoever she wants to get rid of. Andre's second wife suffered a fatal accident after drinking the chocolate Mika prepared for her, and got her and Andre back together again.

Mika gets a dislike for Jeanne Pollet, a piano student, who suspects that Andre is her father. This theory is the result of the revelation that Jeanne's mother tells her about having been switched momentarily at birth with Axel, the son of Andre and his late wife. In fact, Jeanne sees a possibility in her theory because, like Andre, she has a passion for the piano, while Axel shows no interest.

The best thing in the film is Isabelle Huppert, who makes another one of her memorable screen characters come alive. One can see in her face the emotions Mika is experiencing. This actress gives a seamless performance about the evil woman who has gone above and beyond to destroy lives. Anna Mouglalis also made an impression as Jeanne, the young woman who solves the puzzle and is, at the same time, an almost victim of the possessed Mika. Jacques Dutronc plays Andre.

Another interesting Claude Chabrol film that will please his fans.

This film dares to be different, and I can really respect that. The film is about a young lady who introjects herself into the lives of a nearby family. Why this occurs really isn't all that important. However, once involved, she stumbles on the idea that the wife in this family is drugging their hot cocoa. Throughout the film, we learn that she is actually the second wife--the first one died from a combination of alcohol and a sedative while driving. When the girl discovers this, she combines her knowledge that the lady had put drugs in the cocoa and realizes she probably murdered the first wife.

All this is really interesting and makes for a thriller getting a score of 8 or 9 on IMDb EXCEPT FOR ONE STUPID PLOT DEVICE--how could this young lady have possibly guessed that the cocoa was drugged? It just doesn't make logical sense and she barely knew the family when she had this suspicion. PLUS, incredibly enough, her own boyfriend boyfriend just happens to work at the lab owned by her own mother so he can test a sample to prove that it was tainted. Oh, and minor miracle of minor miracles, the lab just HAPPENS to be a forensics lab. What an amazing coincidence!!!!! Please--next time, show a little more respect for the intelligence of the audience and don't let silly plot elements like this negatively influence an otherwise excellent film! Wow--and this film came so close to being great.

Oh, and one other comment. Isabelle Huppert's performance in the film at times appears to be that of a zombie. She stares off into space a lot and when confronted she just sits there. I would have expected that when a murderer is confronted ALONE that there would be a fair likelihood that the murderer would then kill the person who confronted them (or at least make an attempt)--but not this time.

The heiress to a chocolate empire has just re-married her former husband, who is an internationally famous concert pianist. Together with the husband's son from another relationship they constitute a well-respected "haute bourgeoisie" family. However, there's a strange story swirling around the son - it is rumored that, as a new-born baby, he was accidentally exchanged with another baby. Could this rumor be true ? And if so, what does this mean for the other baby involved ?

"Merci pour le chocolat" is a pleasantly watchable thriller about darkly criminal tendencies. There's an interesting juxtaposition between the highly civilized, highly cultured environment and the twisted violence of the crime(s) involved. Isabelle Huppert, très grande dame, is especially riveting.

Unfortunately the movie suffers from a lack of subtlety : every being capable of breathing air will have guessed / reconstructed most of the plot (including the identity of the villain) after 15 to 20 minutes. Some additional suspects or red herrings might have worked wonders here.

Near the end there's also a car ride which stretches credulity. The car ride goes like this : the driver is driving a powerful and unfamiliar car along a dangerous series of roads. The driver begins to feel sleepy and unfocused, as it turns out for good reasons. The passenger sitting next to her notes that she is not doing well and suggests she might be losing her concentration. The driver continues on her merry way, along the same dangerous roads. Jesus Christ ! Every driver with more brains than a hamster would realize that she was in grievous trouble and would try to do the right thing, to wit slow down, find a suitable spot in which to stop and ask the passenger for help. It's a cheap device supposed to keep us viewers hooked, but I for one mainly felt exasperated.

Still, there are worse movies to watch on a rainy evening.

Both Huppert and Chabrol are prolific and last year they worked together yet again on a movie light years ahead of this one but when one is prolific one is playing the percentages and winds up with a high chaff to wheat ratio as both have done here. Perhaps most risible is the scene towards the end that appears to be Chabrol's version of the heroine walking the corridors of the Gothic castle at three in the morning wearing only a negligee and armed only with a candle in the full knowledge that there are murderers, maniacs, vampires, perm any one from three, on the loose. Chabrol's take on this is to have a young girl volunteer to drive the car of her hostess along a winding road at night in the full knowledge that the hostess has drugged her drink. Realistically all she had to do was let the hostess, Huppert, drive herself to the pharmacy to collect a prescription, or even, if it comes to that, let the chauvinistic husband (Dutronc) pick up his own prescription. This is but one in a series of plot holes that may well be symbolised by the cobweb shawl Huppert is knitting throughout. Children swapped at birth (well, it was good enough for Shakespeare, Chabrol may argue), one of them the child of a forensic lab owner with a boyfriend working there, so convenient for testing possible toxins the spider-woman may be lacing the drinks with. More? How about this: confronted by a strange girl who claims she may be his daughter Dutronc goes from 'you must be mad' to 'come and play a little four-hand piano with me' in minutes.

The colors are of that strangely muted type that Chabrol seems to have made his own, the two young actors clearly came in a flat-pack from IKEA and there's a lack of interaction throughout. Isabelle Huppert's Mika runs the gamut from cold-blooded murderess to charming hostess hitting all the stops along the way whilst Jacques Dutronc appropriately turns in a Johnny-One-Note performance. Not one that either Chabrol or Huppert would want to feature prominently on their CVs.