Chocolat is an interesting twist on the romance, as it shifts the focus from the love story, as the title picture would suggest, to a deeper discussion of morals, religion and life in general. The setting in a small French town simply amplifies the contact between characters. While in a bigger city, people would be able to avoid each other, this small town lets no conflict be unresolved.
The first aspect that needs to be analyzed is the religious one. The movie presents two different sets of spirituality, at the one hand the strict Christian belief of the town and on the other hand the South American folk tradition of Vianne's ancestors. While the former is mostly represented through tradition and a rigid set of morals and rules, the latter is allowed to instill some magic into the movie. It is left open to interpretation in how far the north wind is a magical or rather just an atmospherical event. While the two belief systems are opposed at first, the climax of the movie allows them to move closer together and instill some of their characteristics in each other. While the Christian town becomes more open to change, Vianne decides to abandon her life long journey for the sake of her daughter.
The second aspect is the concept of morals and how they affect the story. The town's morality code is clearly based on both ancient Christian codes of conduct and the major's own version of good faith. It is an interesting system that forces individuals to life by a certain code and even if they find that things go wrong in their own life due to this code, strictly follow it. In psychology this would be defined as fanaticism and the major is the main character showing clinical signs of it. A side effect of these strict moral codes is the often inherent classism of organized religion. This is shown in the reactions towards the river folk and Vianne at first.
Overall, the movie is an interesting analysis of the effects of moral codes on society. The verdict the movie gives is clearly negative, showing that each character abiding by the code is worse off for it and only in letting go of it can find happiness. This counts for both the town's people and Vianne, who has to let go of her own moral code of her mother's folk belief.
