Critical Acclaim
Better Than Chocolate
Starring: Karyn Dwyer
With Christina Cox and Wendy Crewson
Better Than Chocolate is a sexy romp of love and lust with surprising results. Maggie (Karyn Dwyer) meets the woman of her dreams just hours before her neurotic mother and brother unexpectedly move in with her. Maggie is exploring her newfound freedom after dropping out of college to become a writer. She works by day at a lesbian bookstore and dances by night at a lively, local girls’ club. Maggie is afraid to come out to her mother but ultimately it is Maggie's clandestine romance that inadvertently introduces her family to a host of new experiences, all of which are potentially better than chocolate!
With its playful eroticism and provocative humor, Better than Chocolate has won over film festival audiences worldwide. The film premiered at The Berlin Film Festival before screening at the Seattle International Film Festival and many gay and lesbian film festivals. It has won the Millivres Multimedia Audience Award for Most Popular Film at the 1999 London Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and was the winner of the Best Feature Film Audience Award at Inside Out, the 1999 Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
Reviews:
"A terrifically entertaining romantic comedy"
- Variety
"The highlight of the movie is unquestionably Dwyer's performance as Maggie. She brings a sexy intelligence to the role of a floating 19 year old trying to find a place to land that keeps us rooting for her…It may well be that Better Than Chocolate will be remembered as the film that kick starts her career."
-Chicago Tribune
“Capably serving as the film's heart and soul is Karyn Dwyer, a fresh faced 19 year old. (Dwyer is) terrific, lending the goings on a heated, poignant credibility."
-Hollywood Reporter
"Dwyer certainly has the ability to light up a scene."
-ReelViews
“Maggie (Karyn Dwyer), with her luscious, curly, reddish-brown hair and her all-American girl looks, would be a catch for anybody.”
-InternetReviews.com
“One of the real delights of the film is the love story and subsequent lovemaking scenes between the two lead characters, Maggie (Karyn Dwyer) and Kim.”
-xtra
"Karyn Dwyer is wonderful as Maggie, from the nervousness in her new relationship to her creativity and sense of humour as she grows stronger throughout the course of the film."
- San Francisco Bay Times
"Karyn Dwyer is wonderful as Maggie, from the nervousness in her new relationship to her creativity and sense of humour as she grows stronger throughout the course of the film."
- San Francisco Bay Times
"Dwyer and Cox couldn't be a more appealing couple, even as their relationship waxes and wanes in the wake of Maggie's unsuspecting mom, and in spite of its periodic, prefabricated conflicts (enter skinheads, stage right) this is a smart, cheerful, movie that's hard not to like. A festival circuit favorite through the first half of this year."
-Rob Blackwelder, SPLICEDWire
"Sweet, tart and all-around up-to-date in a refreshingly polysexual way, Better Than Chocolate may turn out to be that crossover hit both gay and Canadian audiences in general have been waiting for."
-Eye Weekly
"...Better than Chocolate has everything: a very attractive cast, a diverse score, numerous subplots and a setting in Vancouver in the summertime. Much of it takes place on the waterfront illuminated with golden light from the harbor..." "Disliking this movie would be like disliking chocolate."
-Richard von Busack -InternetReviews.com
