Mary, it's manipulative in that it's trying to make you feel a certain way about what's happening. Isn't that the point of it? If it _does_ make you feel that way (and if you dislike it so much, maybe it did, just a bit?) then it's succeeded. What works takes a really light touch - bloody Barbara Cartland and the rest of the trash novel writers lay it on with a trowel, and the whole thing sinks under a flood of melodramatic crap. Chocolat did drop a few times - it could have done with a little editting - but generally it was OK.

And it's not really a "serious" film. Just the intro tells you that the style is going to be more of a fairy-tale than a real-life gritty scene. If you can suspend disbelief and accept it as a fairy-tale (and a damn good one) then it works. If you say, "That'd never happen in real life", then it falls down.

Yes, Gervase, the Django track is seriously hot - and actually played by Johnny Depp too, according to the credits! His slide guitar seems to need some practise though...

Grab.