MERCI POUR LE CHOCOLAT ----------------------
All seems well when Mika (Isabelle Huppert, "The Piano Teacher") remarries the pianist her chocolate factory owning father had despaired of leaving his business to, Andre Polonski (Jacques Dutronc, "Place Vendome"). But Mika seems a bit too close to Guillaume (Rodolphe Pauley), Andre's adult son with his second wife, Lizbeth - now deceased. Mika, whose father has also passed way declares herself 'Nobody's daughter.' Familial tensions begin to mount when Jeanne (Anne Mouglalis), a young pianist possibly switched at birth with Guillaume, arrives to meet the great Polonski in director Claude Chabrol's "Merci Pour Le Chocolat."
Septuagenarian Chabrol, long known as the French Hitchcock, knows how to utilize Huppert's cool brand of calculation. Their seventh collaboration is both as twisty and as obvious as the black web Mika literally spins with her crochet needle.
The biggest mystery in Chabrol's latest isn't what Mika may or may not be putting into her nightly chocolate drink concoctions, but the relationship between herself and Andre. Mika carefully covers her manipulations with an outward perky cheerfulness while Andre, seemingly unaware of the effect of his words, notes Jeanne's resemblance to Lizbeth. Is Andre oblivious or is he using his wife as a patron of the arts?
Chabrol and Caroline Eliacheff have adapted a Charlotte Armstrong novel by ladling on the symbolism. While Mika may be a murderer, Jeanne's mother is forensics chemist, which links back to the more commercial profession of Mika's father. In one conversation, Mika's business associate Dufreigne (Michel Robin) chides her for dropping sponsorship of children's charities while discussing how to get milk to the factory. Jeanne keeps fussing about milk for her tea - a quest to discover mother? If all this weren't enough, the musical piece Polonski mentors Jeanne on is 'Funerailles.'.
"Merci Pour Le Chocolat" is a poisonous play of parentage with a barren schemer pulling its strings.
B+
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