Keith Gordon

(On Cable TV, November 2022) As a film reviewer, one of the big foundational questions about any movie is a plain simple “Why?”  As in—why was this film made? What compelled hundreds of people to do their part in bringing this story to the screen? For a surprising number of films, the question can be answered by, “It’s adapted from a best-selling novel.”  Such is the case with writer-director Keith Gordon’s The Chocolate War, a teenage drama set in a boarding school where much of the action revolves around… a chocolate fundraising effort. Of course, it’s not about selling chocolate—it’s about one young man’s rebellion against established order, against how a personal error (as in: buying far too many boxes of chocolate to sell) can lead to abuse in a system set up to reinforce existing power structures. It’s such an out-there concept that, yes, the “why” of the film boils down to—it’s based on a classic YA novel by Robert Cormier. Alas, if you think this is going to be funny, you’re mistaken: As dark as its setting in an austere Catholic boarding school where no fun is ever allowed, The Chocolate War offers little in terms of triumphs for the protagonist refusing to engage in chocolate-selling—and that’s after the novel’s original ending was revised to be lighter and more hopeful. It makes for a decent, but not overly engaging viewing experience: it’s very much a novel of awful people perpetuating the means through which they remain awful, and the refusal to lend a light touch to what could have been a satirical premise is the kind of thing that takes a toll, however justifiable it is. As boarding school dramas go, The Chocolate War also pales in comparison to contemporary heavyweights of the subgenre. Still—not bad: glum, dispiriting and dismaying in its social implications, but it clearly achieves its targets even after altering the events in the original novel.