Grade: C+

Verdict: Like chocolate itself, too much of this can make you sick.

Details: Starring Juliette Binoche and Judi Dench. Directed by Lasse Hallström. Rated PG-13 for a scene of sensuality and some violence. Two hours, 1 minute.

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Review: A taste of chocolate sparks your senses and perks you up. Two hours of “Chocolat” does the opposite. Well-crafted, and beautifully shot and acted, the newest film from Lasse Hallström (“The Cider House Rules”) suffers from seeming less a movie than a shrewdly packaged bid for the box office dollars of audiences who made hits of “Babette's Feast” and “Like Water for Chocolate.” It wants to be as tasty as a homemade batch of fudge, but it plays more like a Hershey bar off the conveyor belt.

The always appealing Juliette Binoche plays Vianne Rocher, single mother of young Anouk (Victoire Thivisol). The two almost literally blow into the French village of Lansquenet one windy February day, sometime in the late 1950s. Renting the empty patisserie and apartment above it from crusty old Armande (Judi Dench), Vianne opens a chocolaterie crammed with delicacies that the stern locals, leaving church across the square, pointedly don't sample.

That's because it's the beginning of Lent, and the mayor, Comte De Reynaud (Alfred Molina) has decided to wage a battle against Vianne and her sweet temptations. Naturally, though, it's only a matter of time before the charming confectioner has won over the townsfolk one by one, united Armande with her estranged grandson and even rescued the neurotic Josephine (Lena Olin) from her abusive marriage to a drunken bar owner (Peter Stormare).

The plot unfolds exactly as you'd expect, offering up an obvious moral: Chocolate is yummy, prejudice is ooky. In case we miss the point, Johnny Depp shows up as a traveling vendor, a self-described “river rat” whom the mayor orders the townsfolk to shun. You can be sure that it's only a matter of time before Vianne has everyone down on the dock, enjoying a festive time with Depp and his fellow drifters.

Binoche reminds us that she's more than just a stunning presence. In one short speech to Depp's character, she traces an arc between nonchalance and sorrow with breathtaking precision. But for the most part, she's stuck being perky.

Fellow Oscar winner Dench is the movie's built-in reality check; her character's growling common sense gives edge and energy to every scene she's in. Unfortunately, she's not in every scene. Olin has some affecting moments, but her overscaled performance sometimes seems pitched for the stage instead of the screen. Then there's poor Molina, stuck with an impossible role as a stick-figure villain. He can't make it work. Carrie-Anne Moss plays Dench's pinched, disapproving daughter, while John Wood and Leslie Caron turn up as obligatory cute old people.

Young Thivisol, who was astonishingly good in “Ponette,” is fine here, but it appears that some of her lines have been redubbed by an actress with a firmer grip on the English language.

Though “Chocolat” hints that Vianne and Anouk possess supernatural powers, this is a fable sadly lacking in magic. Still, if it doesn't hold any surprises, “Chocolat” is pleasant enough in its prefabricated fashion. People who have a sweet tooth for this kind of movie will have a fine time. The rest of us can't be blamed for wanting a dash of hot sauce to cut the sugary flavor.

— Steve Murray, Cox News Service