Better than Chocolate

Better than Chocolate has all the stock ingredients of a truly bad lesbian movie: a woman battling with internalized homophobia; three or four lesbian stereotypes, including the butch, the intellectual, and the pretty young androgyne; a transgendered person with a heart of gold; dimwitted heterosexuals who Just Don't Get It; and of course, several earnest political messages, all tied together in a low-budget production. Yet amazingly, this truly feel-good flick makes up in hijinks and humor what it lacks in depth or finesse. The story ostensibly focuses on Maggie (Karen Dwyer), who tries to keep her lesbianism a secret from her mother (played with screwball abandon by Wendy Crewson), who has just arrived on her doorstep. Peter Outerbridge steals the scenes, however, as a pre-op transsexual who befriends Maggie's mother, woos the shy, bookish lesbian bookstore owner Maggie works for, and remains calm and perfectly coifed at all times. Besides a thin subplot about censorship and the skimpy characterization of Maggie's true love, Kim (Christina Cox), what's not to like? An occasionally gorgeous film that slyly spoofs lesbian stereotypes, this is recommended. (K. G. Schneider)