Better Than Chocolate (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Unmemorable
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	Very Funny Romantic Comedy with a twist .
Disadvantages:	Theres no part 2 / follow up film !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

What can be better than chocolate? I hear you ask?.... This film is!

The first time I watched this was with my friend and I wasn't too sure what to expect from it after hearing the title! But this really is a fantastic film!

The Cast.
The two main characters are Maggie who is played by Karyn Dwyer, Maggie is a lesbian who works in a gay bookshop after dropping out of uni and Kim who is played by Christina Cox, Kim is an artist who travels around painting peoples pictures and getting paid $20 a time. The other characters are, Frances who is the owner of the gay bookshop that Maggie works in, Judy who is a post-op transsexual who has fallen in love with Frances. There is also Maggie’s mother and brother who come to stay with Maggie after her mothers recent divorce.

The Plot.
The film starts off with Maggie taking part in a show at the local club alongside Judy, after the show Maggie is on her way back to the bookshop where she works and is currently living until she can find somewhere more permanent, when she starts getting hassled by some blokes… enter Kim for the first time! Kim pulls up in her van and as she jumps out the lads run off, this is Maggie and Kim’s first meeting, however at this point Maggie goes off home, only to be woken up by a phone call of her very interfering mother saying that she and Maggie’s brother are coming to stay as she is getting a divorce from her husband. Maggie’s mother however does not know about Maggie’s sexuality, and therefore doesn’t know that she is currently living in the back room of a gay bookshop, at this point Maggie has to quickly find somewhere to live.

So Maggie goes to view a place that a woman who does safe sex demonstrations is sub-letting. Great now she has somewhere to live!

On her way back Maggie bumps into Kim who is doing her paintings at the side of the road, they go for coffee and one thing leads to another in the back of Kim’s van, this turns out to be quite funny as the van actually gets towed away and impounded while they are inside. At this point Kim can’t afford to have it released, so she gets most of her things and moves into the house with Maggie.

While they are “moving in” Maggie’s mother and brother arrive earlier than expected, now remember this is really the home of a woman who does safe sex demos, so it is decorated with various sex toys which Maggie and Kim have to quickly gather up and hide, luckily her mum is too upset at first to notice, so they manage this ok.

As Maggie’s mother doesn’t know she is gay, they have to pretend that Kim is a friend who is staying with her, and that the bookshop is a discount bookshop (its called ten percent). Maggie’s brother is quite quick to find out about Maggie when he overhears them being rather noisy on the couch when they think everyone is asleep, however he doesn’t say anything to their mum he just gives Maggie that “I know” look.

Over the time that her mum is staying there she meets a few of Maggie’s friends such as Judy who she doesn’t realise is a transsexual and they become quite close friends, but will they stay that close when the truth is uncovered? I wont spoil that for you!

Since the divorce Maggie’s mum has taken to eating chocolates wrapped in little pink wrappers, which she carries round with her constantly, one night she accidentally knocks them on the floor in the bedroom she is staying in and as she is picking them up she discovers a rather interesting box under the bed containing some rather interesting sex toys she hasn’t “experienced” before, after a night of fun she makes some hot coco and goes to confront Maggie, who at this point is asleep with Kim on the couch after their night out, her mum walks in to find them scrambling to put some more decent clothes on than just their underwear. First of all she confronts Maggie about the toys, which is where you have the funny scene of “you didn’t actually use them did you?” “Well yes” “oh my god they are the woman’s who I’m sub-letting from!” this is where the confrontation leads to her mum discovering the truth about Maggie’s Sexuality and Kim walking out when Maggie doesn’t admit to her mother that she does love Kim.

In the meantime while all this is going on Judy is completely in love with Frances, who is very reserved and doesn’t seem interested in the thought of going out with Judy, although after a rather eventful night at the club after one of Judys shows they do share a kiss. But will this lead to anything more? Frances is having her own troubles with customs not allowing her books she has ordered to cross over the border, which leads to a trip to customs with Maggie to try and get the books back, only to be told that books of that content will not be allowed into the country, this leads to a demonstration by Maggie in the bookshop window, of her standing in the window over night naked with only two signs covering her personal areas one saying obscene and the other saying lesbian, this however as you can imagine leads to unwanted attention from a gang of thugs in the night who start banging the window, at which point Maggie’s mum and Judy turn up quite drunk after celebrating Judys new house, the thugs disappear only to return moments later when Maggie’s mum has got into the shop trying to talk Maggie out of her demo, when they throw flares through the window of the shop, one of them lands right where a cooker is being fitted causing an explosion of the whole shop. The questions now are… who will survive? Will Kim return? Will Judy finally get the woman she wants? Is this going to be a happy ending? I can’t spoil that for you, so you’re going to have to watch it!

Special Features.
There are only two special feature on this DVD, they are Chapter Indexes, so you can pick a certain chapter to start watching from, and the theatrical trailer, which is basically the short trailer that was shown in the cinemas to temp you to watch this film.

Information.
The info on the back of the DVD is as follows…
Certificate: 15
Aspect ratio: 4:3
Main soundtrack: Dolby stereo: English
Region code: PAL Region 2
Disc format: DVD 5
Running time: approx 95 min
Suitable for all televisions.
Enhanced fro widescreen Televisions

Review.
“A joyful lesbian romantic comedy… no brooding, a little angst and a lot of sex” DIVA Magazine

Audience Award Winner. The London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival 1999

Written by Peggy Thompson
Directed by Anne Wheeler

Overall.
I personally would say that this film is defiantly one of my favourites, it has a good mixture and even balance of comedy, romance and sex which all put together make a fantastic film which is enjoyable enough to watch over and over again. There is not just one love interest going on in this film, there is several and I think that’s one of the things that make this film so interesting and great to watch. I don’t think you HAVE to be gay to watch this film… don’t bother if you are defiantly against homosexuality though! And I wouldn’t class it as a film where you get loads of “girl on girl” action thrown in your face – its only got a 15 classification!
I do however think that as brillaint as the ending is they should consider doing a second film to follow up and fill us in on what happens next!
Overall I think it is a fantastic film, which I would defiantly recommend to anyone regardless of his or her sexuality.