Merci Pour Le Chocolat
Empire Pictures | Release Date: July 31, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
New Times (L.A.)Andy Klein
The film is a masterpiece of nuance and characterization, marred only by an inexplicable, utterly distracting blunder at the very end. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
It is a movie about the gradual erosion of life's seeming certainties, and it's also about the destructive immorality that may lie beneath the most exquisitely composed veneer. As we watch "Chocolat," this great director and his great actress, Huppert, convince us: Evil is. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Self-contained, enigmatic, illuminated from within, Huppert banks a performance that pays dividends throughout the film. Read full review
90
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Every moment of the way, there is a delectable sense of subtle menace and, at the center of it all, Huppert's haunting expression, part sphinx, part grace and maybe part scary. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Once again Chabrol's son Mathieu has composed a crucially evocative score, and Renato Berta's cinematography is gleaming. Merci Pour le Chocolat crackles with wit and elegance, humor and pathos. Read full review
90
VarietyDerek Elley
A treat, a delicious blend of perversity, playfulness and deadly passion concealed beneath the tranquil, moneyed surface of the Swiss bougeoisie. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Like some of Hitchcock's films, the story - adapted from a novel by Charlotte Armstrong, an American mystery writer of the '40s and '50s - can be accused of stretching credibility and coincidence almost to the breaking point. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Huppert has never been this cheerful, or lethal, and the movie itself is like Hitchcock's ''Rebecca'' reshot for House & Garden, with all the ghosts pulled out of the closet. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Chabrol handles the upended family dynamic beautifully until the final third, when a wildly implausible sequence of events lessens the suspense just as he should be turning the screws. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Schickel
Occasionally succumbs to Mika's legato rhythms, but it is more often a sly, subtle comedy about the oh-so-gentle art of murder. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Unfortunately, a conclusion stuffed with so many improbabilities that it left me gaping in disbelief. Prior to that, this is pretty much fun. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
The story proceeds, by minuscule tonal shifts and barely perceptible changes in the atmospheric temperature, from touches of ghoulish comedy -- to the creepy stillness of death that pervades the house. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Mr. Chabrol's droll assault on petit-bourgeois security feels like a satire of "Ordinary People" directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Not since Cary Grant offered Joan Fontaine a gleaming glass of milk has a bedtime toddy looked as suspicious as it does in Claude Chabrol's wittily enigmatic Merci pour le chocolat. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Isabelle Huppert has the best poker face since Buster Keaton. She faces the camera with detached regard, inviting us to imagine what she is thinking. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
An elegant study in perversity. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeJanice Page
The magic of their perfectly shaded performances is that you always have to wonder ... Is she really that bad? Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The film is ridiculously overplotted, and very little of the plot serves any purpose other than to motivate what you can pretty well guess is going to happen from the outset. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
This bloodless, nuanced little thriller carries small weight save for Huppert's enigmatic, thrifty performance. Read full review
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