Before you see Peggy Thompson and Anne Wheeler's "Better Than Chocolate", ask yourself if you want to see yet another lesbian film heavy with issues. I, unfortunately, get easily irritated by movies weighed down with a political agenda, but, fortunately, this one had enough funny charm and emotional content to keep me interested. The framework of the film is your typical girl meets girl, girl almost loses girl because she can't come out to her parents scenario. The very involved subplots, however, create the film's promise.
Lila (Wendy Crewson) is the betrayed house-wife going through a divorce, and mother-cum-roommate (and she's not the only character we get to see cum in the film) of the movie's central character, Maggie (Karyn Dwyer). Aside from the artfully sensual (yummy!) love-making scenes between the main character and her new girlfriend Kim (Christina Cox), the friendship formed between Lila, and her daughter's transgender friend Judy (Peter Outerbridge) makes for some of the movie's most delightful moments.
One character who isn't given nearly enough screen time is Carla (Marya Delver), a gorgeous "omnisexual" (as described by Maggie) feminine biker babe who works at the bookstore that serves as the dramatic hub of the film. She is flirtatious and outrageously forthright with her sexual appetites. Carla seduces Maggie's seventeen year old brother Paul (Kevin Mundy) into exploring new possibilities (after all, "boys like toys, too."). I couldn't help thinking, however, that the writer was, at times, poking gentle fun at her, though with no real disrespect intended.
As an interesting side note, the film steps outside the realm of gender and sexual politics to touch on other sensitive issues. One of those being the role of the artist. Almost all the film's characters are artists in one way or another. From Maggie's window installations, to Lila's forsaken Opera career, to Judy's fantastic nightclub acts, to Kim's paintings, the arts are heavily addressed. In the dialogue between Lila and other characters we see that, as filmmakers, the writer and director have a real grasp on the difficulties of being creators. What is fascinating is that "coming out" as an artist, in the film, is nearly equated with coming out as a lesbian. Aside from the annoying in-your-face rhetorical quality typical of many gay and lesbian films, "Better Than Chocolate" is warmly amusing and appealing to those of any gender or sexual orientation.
