Happy first full week of September! 🍂 Time for another mini-review of movies I saw on streaming recently.

PEACE BY CHOCOLATE (2022)

Based on a true story of the Hadhad family who fled war-torn Lebanon after the family’s chocolate factory is bombed, the movie opens with a scene of Tareq Hadhad (Ayham Abou Ammar) during Winter in Nova Scotia freezing his face off. Tareq’s parents join him a few months later and immediately start making chocolates again.

While Tareq’s father Issam (Hatem Ali) wants to rebuild his chocolate business, all Tareq wants is to go to medical school. This dueling ambition that puts the father/son at odds is the central conflict of the movie. Despite the dramatic nature of families displaced during wartime, director Jonathan Keijser set the movie’s tone as comedic. The fish-out-of-water aspect is inherently whimsical, gleefully poking fun at the harsh Canadian winter.

The townsfolk welcome the family with such grace & kindness, with the neighborly Frank (Mark Camacho) going out of his way to help them out as much as he can. The business continues to thrive, with the only friction coming from Kelly (Alika Autran), a chocolate shop owner who’s naturally concerned by this new competition. I feel that the filmmakers didn’t quite do right by this female business owner, especially suggesting that her reason for concern has to do with Xenophobia. Another weak element is that the women in this story (i.e. Tareq’s mother & sister) are practically sidelined. I also think the immigrant tale could’ve been explored a bit deeper as there is no mention of other immigrant families that settled in that region.

Despite those quibbles, Peace By Chocolate is a heartwarming and enjoyable little movie and its positive message about tolerance and making peace with those different from us is timely and inspiring. It’s a bittersweet human story that deserves to be told and it definitely makes you crave some yummy chocolates!

Peace By Chocolate is available to stream on Amazon Prime and Tubi.

OTHERHOOD (2019)

This movie has been on my Netflix queue for some time, largely because of the cast, especially Angela Bassett. Bassett, Patricia Arquette, and Felicity Huffman play three longtime friends Carol, Gillian, and Helen, all of them are moms who feel forgotten by their respective sons. So on Mother’s Day, they all decide to drive to NYC to surprise each of their son in an attempt to reconnect with them.

I’m not a mother myself but I’d imagine it might not be a good idea to arrive unannounced to one’s grown adult child’s home and expect to be welcomed with open arms. Naturally, each of them has been living their own lives and is dealing with their own sets of problems, so having their mom showing up doesn’t exactly help matters. Billed as a relationship comedy, the scenes of the moms surprising their sons are funny but also quite cringe-worthy. Writer/director Cindy Chupack (who’s best known for writing Emmy-winning episodes of Sex in the City) isn’t shy about tackling sexually-charged themes in an amusingly matter-of-fact manner. One hilarious scene shows Carol’s son Matt (Sinqua Walls) making out intensely and is thisclose to doing the deed when they suddenly realize she’s been watching the entire time!

For the most part, though, the movie isn’t particularly funny, in fact, some of the themes are quite dark and even sad. Helen’s fractured relationship with her gay son Paul (Jake Lacy) is the most explosive, while the storyline of Gillian’s son Daniel (Jake Hoffman) is the most forgettable for me. It could be that I was distracted by how much Jake resembles his famous father Dustin Hoffman, but I think it’s because his whining after being ditched by his girlfriend is such a clichéd narrative. It also doesn’t help matters that some of the scenarios are so over the top and absurd that feel blatantly forced.

I think I’d have enjoyed this movie more if the three women had spent more time together. I was expecting something like 80s For Brady where I enjoy the rapport of four older women and their camaraderie in coping with whatever life throws at them. By focusing on the mother/son narrative, the script robs us of the delightful chemistry between these three talented actresses. Despite its flaws though, this one is still worth a watch just for Bassett alone, who manages to still rise above the lackluster material.

OTHERHOOD is now streaming on Netflix.

Have you seen either one of these? I’d love to hear what you think!
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