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Features
Actors: Agnes Bruckner, Hugh Dancy, Olivier Martinez, Katja Riemann, Bryan Dick
Directors: Katja von Garnier
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 1
Rating: 
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Release Date: June 12, 2007
Run Time: 98 minutes
Average Customer Review:
  (79 customer reviews)
Reader Reviews
SPOILERS for the movie and the book. I thought this movie might be in trouble when I saw the trailer weeks before its release date and the theater audience howled with derisive laughter at the trailer voice-over's oh-so-dramatic unveiling of the awkward title: "BLOOD...AND CHOCOLATE." The thing is, people who haven't read the book wouldn't get the seemingly incongruous title. In Annette Curtis Klause's 1999 Young Adult novel (read it eons ago), BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE was a metaphor for Vivian's internal struggle between her werewolf heritage (the "blood") and her desire for a human boy (the "chocolate"). Here, the "chocolate" part seemingly refers to her being employed in a chocolate shop. But let's get to the movie plot. In contemporary Bucharest, one of the very last wolf packs on earth survives and continues to hunt. Vivian Gandillon (Agnes Bruckner) is a troubled (but hot) young werewolf, haunted by a tragic past. She revels in running thru the Romanian woods but abhors the pack's bloodcurling tendency to chase down the occasional human victim. Vivian spends her days toiling away in a chocolate shop and her nights haunting the hot Bucharest night spots. One evening, while hanging out in a desolate chapel, she has a chance encounter with Aiden (Hugh Dancy), an artist who is researching the legends of the loup garoux (werewolves) for his next graphic novel. He's interested. She is, too, but rebuffs him. He persists and she succumbs to seeing him. Of course, they fall in love. Of course, it's not quite that easy. As per ancient custom, it seems that the leader of the werewolf pack, Gabriel (Olivier Martinez), must take a new wife every seven years and has been eyeing Vivian for his latest bride; so he's not about to let some human get in his way. Add to that the unsavory capers perpetrated by Viv's cousin Rafe (Bryan Dick) and his clique, the "Five," and the love story of Vivian and Aiden threatens to fizzle out before its time. Shades of Capulet and Montague! I wondered if the film would be able to survive the burden of an incongruous title. Sadly...no. BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE suffers firstly from having a PG-13 rating as the movie finds itself reduced to a fangless state, with neither enough goriness nor titillation. Too, this film horribly butchers Annette Curtis Klause's popular book. Readers of the novel are bound to be disappointed and even heart-broken by all the changes made to make the feature more "Hollywood," as the book's core story is basically gutted, leaving the character names and the lycantrophic premise as the sole survivors of the wholesale alterations. Briefly, some of the things that were changed: in the movie, the story is set in Bucharest, Romania, instead of in the U.S.; in the movie, Vivian works in a chocolate shop, instead of being in high school; Vivian's mother isn't present in the film (she has a key role in the book); also, the book depicts Vivian as embracing her werewolfness; and, importantly, the natures of Gabriel and Aiden have been drastically modified. A word to the gorehound: the film focuses more on the romantic aspect than the horror elements. In fact, I wasn't too impressed with the horror elements or the action sequences. Here, when the werewolves transform, they do so in a sterilized blur, instead of the nifty, gory and messy gradual segue from man to monster. And since these are the same producers who did UNDERWORLD, I guess they're trying to make Vivian over in Kate Beckinsale's Selene mold. But I think there are enough film babes out there who deliver these same trite action scenes. Meanwhile, the special effects are serviceable, if ho-hum. The actors are gorgeous but prove to be inconsequential. Agnes Bruckner and Hugh Dancy have some chemistry, but their ponderous acting serves to sabotage their rapport. Olivier Martinez, to me, is just miscast for the role of the heavy. Maybe it's too hard to be villainous when you have a French accent, unless everyone in the cast is French. Or maybe Martinez is just too...lightweight. Another drawback. I've always thought there was an element of tragedy in the werewolf mythos, of being forced to become a ravening beast against your will and losing all control and inhibition when the moon is full. But, in this movie, the moon's phase isn't much of a factor as the pack can transform at will. To me, this takes away some of the tension and part of the allure of the werewolf mythos. As well with this movie's proposition that werewolves can't infect their victims and "turn" them. You're either born a loup garou or you're not. This premise also takes away from some of the implied peril in the movie. When in a zombie, vampire, or werewolf flick, one of the biggest fears and carriers of suspense is that the viewer's favorite characters might become infected. Now I realize that part of my lukewarm reaction to this flick is that, after all these years, I still fondly remember the book I've read. I've pretty much accepted that when a great book becomes a movie, it loses something in translation. Every now and then, you do have superb film renditions of books (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, LORD OF THE RINGS, HARRY POTTER...) or, even in rare instances, a film that improves on the book (TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT), but mostly, we'll get efforts like BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE. So let me say this, if I haven't read the book, I probably would've rated this film higher, maybe three stars. I'm usually pretty generous and I normally enjoy supernatural/fantasy horror features. But I have read the book and anjoyed it, and I'm a bit put out that so much was changed. Add to that the fact that the film's story is rife with cliches, the dialogue is boring, and the acting is only so-so. So, two stars from me, one star because Agnes Bruckner is hot. But, hey, at least Uwe Boll didn't direct this one, right?
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Blood & Chocolate
List Price: $19.94
Available from Amazon
Price: $9.99
Updated on 12-7-2008.
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