Lasse Hallstrom

Chocolat (Miramax Collector's Series)

A woman and her daughter open a chocolate shop in a small french village that shakes up the rigid morality of the community. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 01/11/2008 Starring: Alfred Molina Juliette Binoche Run time: 105 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Lasse Hallstrom

With movies like Chocolat, it's always best to relax your intellectual faculties and absorb the abundant sensual pleasures, be it the heart-stopping smile of chocolatier Juliette Binoche as she greets a new customer, an intoxicating cup of spiced hot cocoa, or the soothing guitar of an Irish gypsy played by Johnny Depp. Adapted by Robert Nelson Jacobs from Joanne Harris's popular novel and lovingly directed by Lasse Hallström, the film covers familiar territory and deals in broad metaphors that even a child could comprehend, so it's no surprise that some critics panned it with killjoy fervor. Their objections miss the point. Familiarity can be comforting and so can easy metaphors when placed in a fable that's as warmly inviting as this one.

Driven by fate, Vianne (Binoche) drifts into a tranquil French village with her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol, from Ponette) in the winter of 1959. Her newly opened chocolatier is a source of attraction and fear, since Vianne's ability to revive the villagers' passions threatens to disrupt their repressive traditions. The pious mayor (Alfred Molina) sees Vianne as the enemy, and his war against her peaks with the arrival of "river rats" led by Roux (Depp), whose attraction to Vianne is immediate and reciprocal. Splendid subplots involve a battered wife (Lena Olin), a village elder (Judi Dench), and her estranged daughter (Carrie-Anne Moss), and while the film's broader strokes may be regrettable (if not for Molina's rich performance, the mayor would be a caricature), its subtleties are often sublime. Chocolat reminds you of life's simple pleasures and invites you to enjoy them. --Jeff Shannon

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (Special Collector's Edition)

Gilbert grape is a small-town guy with a big heart resigned to supporting his eccentric family: a 500-pound mother a mentally disabled brother and two troublesome sisters. But when gilbert meets a pretty life-loving outsider he rediscovers the hopes and dreams he had long forgotten. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/06/2008 Starring: Johnny Depp Mary Steenburgen Run time: 128 minutes Rating: Pg13

This is the movie that Leonardo DiCaprio received an Oscar nomination for, five years before Titanic. And, in fact, this is the movie that should have made him a star, he's so good in it. Based on the novel by Peter Hedges (who adapted his own book) and directed by Lasse Hallström (My Life as a Dog), this is the funny, moody tale of a young man named Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) who lives at home in a small town with his 500-pound Momma (beautifully played by nonpro Darlene Cates), his mentally retarded younger brother Arnie (DiCaprio, utterly convincing), and his sisters. Not a lot happens--Arnie keeps climbing a water tower and getting stuck; Gilbert is involved with a married woman (Mary Steenburgen), then meets a nice new girl in town who's closer to his age (Juliette Lewis). And that's exactly what makes this movie so much more than your run-of-the-mill Hollywood product: it's not about some mechanical, formulaic plot; it's about these characters, and it allows you to spend some time with them and get to know them. Depp may have started out as a TV teen idol on 21 Jump Street, but his feature film choices since then--in such wonderfully offbeat and diverse movies as Cry-Baby, Edward Scissorhands, Benny & Joon, Donnie Brasco--have made him one of the most interesting, unpredictable, and risk-taking young actors in American movies. --Jim Emerson

Something to Talk About

Julia roberts stars as a wronged wife whose reaction to husband dennis quaids infidelity sends her family and social circle spinning. Special features: theatrical trailer and all-new dolby digital 5.1 remix. Subtitles in english and french. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 01/18/2005 Starring: Julia Roberts Dennis Quaid Run time: 105 minutes Rating: R Director: Lasse Halstrom

This well-intentioned but strangely cold tale concerns an emotionally repressed Southern belle (Julia Roberts) who separates from her husband (Dennis Quaid) after discovering he is an unabashed philanderer. Pressed by her dominating father (Robert Duvall) into reconciling with her spouse, Roberts's character chafes against so much male control over her destiny. Defended by a fiercely independent sister (a catchy performance by Kyra Sedgwick), the heroine develops the nerve to plot her own course in life while her mother (Gena Rowlands) finds the gumption to throw her own mate out of the house. The script by Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise) is intelligent but hardly clear, and direction by Lasse Hallström (Once Around) can't keep Khouri's unfocused scenes and uncertain purpose from dissolving like sand castles in the rain. --Tom Keogh

Casanova

Heath ledger stars as the legendary casanova the worlds most notorious seducer a master of disguise and wit. It was said no woman could resist his amorous charms. But casanova has finally met his match in the fiery intelligent beauty francesca. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 01/11/2008 Starring: Heath Ledger Jeremy Irons Run time: 111 minutes Rating: R

A light farce dressed up as a lush 18th century costume drama, Casanova gives a fictional spin to the exploits of history's most rakish seducer of women. As played by Heath Ledger, this Casanova bears no resemblance to Donald Sutherland's unrepentant portrayal in Fellini's Casanova, filmed 30 years earlier. Instead, the great ladies' man of Venice is just biding time by bedding women, waiting for true love (and the return his long-absent mother) to settle down into blissful monogamy. He finds true love in Francesca (Sienna Miller), a feminist who initially resists Casanova's affections while director Lasse Hallström serves up a variety of lightweight subplots including Casanova's flight from the Vatican's inquisitor (Jeremy Irons); a host of mistaken identities involving, among others, the portly "Lard King of Genoa" (played with scene-stealing perfection by Oliver Platt in a blubbery fat suit); and the romantic negotiations of Francesca's mother (played by Hallström's wife, Lena Olin) and a young bumbler named Giovanni with his own promising future as a lover of women. It all adds up to a good-looking and harmless diversion that barely warrants an R-rating, and it makes a fine double-bill with the more enjoyable Dangerous Beauty, another Venetian lover's tale that was also blessed by the presence of Platt, who gives this Casanova the majority of its entertainment value. --Jeff Shannon

An Unfinished Life

Still in shock from his only sons death a decade ago einar has let his ranch fall into ruin along with his marriage. Einar intends to live out his days alone..Until the person he blames for his sons death comes to town - his daughter-in-law jean. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 12/26/2008 Starring: Robert Redford Jennifer Lopez Run time: 108 minutes Rating: Pg13

Much like the late Rodney Dangerfield, some films just can't get any respect. Shelved by Miramax for two years, An Unfinished Life was released with little fanfare between Morgan Freeman's Oscar win and Lasse Hallström's higher-profile Casanova. Despite critical praise from some quarters, the heartland drama got lost amidst the shuffle. The title comes from the epitaph of Griffin, late son of Wyoming rancher Einar (a rumpled Robert Redford). Between chores, he looks after ranch hand Mitch (Freeman), who was mauled by a bear the year before. One day, daughter-in-law Jean (Jennifer Lopez) and granddaughter Griff (Becca Gardner) drop by the ranch unexpectedly. They're on the run from Jean's abusive boyfriend, Gary (Damian Lewis), back in Iowa. "I don't want you here," Einar states flatly--he blames her for Griffin's death 12 years ago--but the look on the kid's face convinces him to relent. While Jean works as a waitress in town and embarks on a tentative relationship with Sheriff Crane (Josh Lucas), his newfound granddaughter helps to take care of Mitch. Just as the four are starting to form a loose-knit family, Gary comes looking for Jean and upsets the delicate balance. It may pack fewer surprises than the superior What's Eating Gilbert Grape and the bear symbolism may be a mite heavy-handed, but the deeply unfashionable An Unfinished Life deserves a second chance to find an audience. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

ABBA The Movie

The Cider House Rules (Miramax Collector's Series)

A compassionate young man raised in an orphanage and trained to be a doctor there decides to leave to see the world. Homer leaves with wally & candy to work on wallys family apple farm. Wally goes off to war leaving homer & candy alone together. What will homer learn about live & love in the cider house? Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 09/07/2004 Starring: Tobey Maguire Delroy Lindo Run time: 126 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Lasse Hallstrom

In adapting his own novel The Cider House Rules for the screen, John Irving sacrificed at least some of the depth and detail that made his humanitarian themes resonate, while the film--directed with Scandinavian sobriety by Lasse Hallström--is often vague about the complex issues (abortion, incest, responsibility) that lie at its core. Allowing for this ambiguity (which is arguably intentional), the film retains much of what made Irving's novel so admired, and like Hallström's earlier feature What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, it's blessed with a generous, forgiving spirit toward the mistakes, foibles, and desires of its many engaging characters.

Central to the story (set during World War II) is Homer (Tobey Maguire), a young man raised in a Maine orphanage, where the ether-sniffing Dr. Larch (Michael Caine) rules with benevolent grace while performing safe but illegal abortions. To expand his horizons, Homer follows a young couple (Charlize Theron, Paul Rudd) to do fieldwork on an apple farm, where his innocent eyes are opened to the good and evil of the world--and to the realization that not all rules are steadfast in all situations. By the time Homer returns to the orphanage, The Cider House Rules--which features one of Caine's finest performances--is memorable more for its many charming and insightful moments than for any lasting dramatic impact. Is Homer fated to come full circle in his kindhearted journey? It's left to the viewer to decide. --Jeff Shannon

The Shipping News

After tragedy strikes quoyle a hapless lonely upstate new yorker decides to move he and his daughter to his ancestral home in newfoundland. In the small fishing village of killick-claw quoyle secures a job as a reporter at the local newspaper. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 04/05/2005 Starring: Kevin Spacey Judi Dench Run time: 111 minutes Rating: R

Fans of Lasse Hallström's truffle, Chocolat, may enjoy the director's subsequent novel adaptation, the emotionally charged Shipping News. The opening sequence introduces us to the bumbling Quoyle (Kevin Spacey), an ink setter at the Poughkeepsie News; his hedonistic wife Petal Bear (Cate Blanchett); and their daughter Bunny. But we hardly get to meet the characters, much less connect with them, in the fewer than eight minutes allotted for the scene. Before you know it, Petal is dead in a car wreck, Quoyle's parents have committed suicide, and Quoyle and Bunny are headed off with Quoyle's aunt Agnis (Judi Dench) to start over in a small Newfoundland port town. As the main story ensues--Quoyle's transformation from passive victim to sensitive lover and eloquent columnist--the subplot of his sordid family history and his aunt's search for healing seems contrived and lifeless. While Julianne Moore, as the widow Wavey, gives a solid performance as Quoyle's love interest, Spacey's performance is uneven, never convincingly at sea enough to reward Quoyle's ultimate self-discovery. As with so many films adapted from novels, The Shipping News fails to embark confidently enough upon its own course to keep off the rocks. --Fionn Meade

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

This is the movie that Leonardo DiCaprio received an Oscar nomination for, five years before Titanic. And, in fact, this is the movie that should have made him a star, he's so good in it. Based on the novel by Peter Hedges (who adapted his own book) and directed by Lasse Hallström (My Life as a Dog), this is the funny, moody tale of a young man named Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) who lives at home in a small town with his 500-pound Momma (beautifully played by nonpro Darlene Cates), his mentally retarded younger brother Arnie (DiCaprio, utterly convincing), and his sisters. Not a lot happens--Arnie keeps climbing a water tower and getting stuck; Gilbert is involved with a married woman (Mary Steenburgen), then meets a nice new girl in town who's closer to his age (Juliette Lewis). And that's exactly what makes this movie so much more than your run-of-the-mill Hollywood product: it's not about some mechanical, formulaic plot; it's about these characters, and it allows you to spend some time with them and get to know them. Depp may have started out as a TV teen idol on 21 Jump Street, but his feature film choices since then--in such wonderfully offbeat and diverse movies as Cry-Baby, Edward Scissorhands, Benny & Joon, Donnie Brasco--have made him one of the most interesting, unpredictable, and risk-taking young actors in American movies. --Jim Emerson

Once Around

An obnoxious salesman charms a woman but not her close-knit boston family. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 12/28/2004 Starring: Richard Dreyfuss Gena Rowlands Run time: 115 minutes Rating: R Director: Lasse Hallstrom