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Merci Pour le Chocolat (2002)
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Synopsis:
Lausanne, Switzerland, the present. Marie-Claire 'Mika' Muller (Isabelle Huppert), managing director of a chocolate company, is remarrying André (Jacques Dutronc), the concert pianist to whom she was briefly married 18 years before. During their time apart André had married Lisbeth,...
Lausanne, Switzerland, the present. Marie-Claire 'Mika' Muller (Isabelle Huppert), managing director of a chocolate company, is remarrying André (Jacques Dutronc), the concert pianist to whom she was briefly married 18 years before. During their time apart André had married Lisbeth, now dead, and raised his child Guillaume (Rodolphe Pauly). Rumors abound that Guillaume had nearly been exchanged with another baby at birth.
That baby is now piano student Jeanne (Anna Mouglalis), a daughter of forensic scientist Madame Pollet (Brigitte Catillon) and lover of her trainee Axel (Matthieu Simonet). On discovering the mix-up that occured at the clinic where she was born, Jeanne visits André and an instant affinity between the two makes itself felt. Jeanne is told that Lisbeth died after falling asleep at the wheel of her car. Mika drops a flask of hot chocolate she regularly prepares in a way that raises Jeanne's suspicions. Jeanne has her pullover, stained with the chocolate, analysed by Axel and discovers that the drink was spiked with the sleeping drug Rohypnol. Guillaume dismisses Jeanne's fears that the spiked drink could have been meant for him, and revelas that when Lisbeth was killed she and André, short of funds, had been staying with Mika. Jeanne is invited to spend a few days studying the piano with André, and is told by her mother that she was conceived by artificial insemination.
At dinner Mika reveals that she was an adopted child. She encourages closeness between Jeanne and Guillaume, and 'inadvertently' spills hot water on her stepson's foot. André has run out of Rohypnol, to which he is addicted. accompanied by Guillaume, who now share her suspicions, Jeanne drives into town to collect a fresh supply. André accuses Mika of Lisbeth's death by spiking her cognac with Rophypnol. Mika owns up. It becomes plain that she also spiked the after-dinner coffee when Jeanne is overcome by somnolence at the wheel; her car crashes into a wall. Neither Jeanne nor Guillaume is hurt. Mika passively awaits justice. -- © Empire Pictures
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Jacques Dutronc, Anna Mouglalis, Rodolphe Pauly, Brigitte Catillon
Screenwriter: Caroline Eliacheff, Claude Chabrol
Producer: Marin Karmitz
Composer: Matthieu Chabrol
Reviews
Isabelle Huppert excels as the enigmatic Mika and Anna Mouglalis is a stunning new young talent in one of Chabrol's most intense psychological mysteries.
Huppert’s superbly controlled display of murderous vulnerability ensures that malice has a very human face.
Weighty and ponderous but every bit as filling as the treat of the title.
Huppert's show to steal and she makes a meal of it, channeling Kathy Baker's creepy turn as the repressed mother on Boston Public as much as 8 Women's Augustine.
The big finish is a bit like getting all excited about a chocolate eclair and then biting into it and finding the filling missing.
Hitch would enjoy the way Chabrol plays with the audience (including the expertly interwoven Lizt requiem)
Like being invited to a classy dinner soiree and not knowing anyone. You leave the same way you came -- a few tasty morsels under your belt, but no new friends.
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