A woman protagonist drives the `Chocolat' plot line.  I don't know if this makes the film a 'chic flick', but regardless it is an excellent film.

I was particularly impressed with the casting and acting.  It was quite true to the characters in the book.  Juliette Binoche was perfect as Vianne, with her repressed perseverance & a mysterious self-confidence.  Judi Dench was marvelous as Armande although I kept expecting her to show up as Queen Elizabeth.  Johnny Depp got more hype in the trailers than he deserved, but they may have been desperate for a name star to draw viewers. 

The director took some major liberties with the plot line that I found distracting, since he virtually eliminated one of the most important main characters and replaced him with two who had lesser obsessions in the film rendition.  I don't want to spoil either the movie or the book for you, but I suspect that a religious lobby may have suppressed the original character (Although it's hard to imagine that this could happen after seeing the film Dogma).  Seeing flaws like this is one of the disadvantages of reading a well-written book before the movie. However, the film is well worth seeing.  It's encouraging that

Hollywood can still bring itself to produce character driven stories.