'Consuming Passions' By Rita Kempley Washington Post Staff Writer April 22, 1988

Director: Giles Foster Cast: Tyler Butterworth; Jonathan Pryce; Freddie Jones; Sammi Davis; Prunella Scales; Vanessa Redgrave; Thora Hird sexual situations and kinky eats Compare prices for this movie Find local video stores More movie shopping Save money with NextCard Visa

The same goes for the characters in "Consuming Passions," an offbeat British comedy of corporate cannibalism. Set in the Chumley Chocolate Factory, this case of eating Willy Wonka is based on a play by Monty Pythoners Michael Palin and Terry Jones. At first the farce has macabre charm and dark comic promise, but as you might predict, the Pythonesque premise is driven into the ground.

It begins as a priceless romp on the cost of climbing to the top, pitting that old dear Mr. Chumley (Freddie Jones) against Mr. Farris (Jonathan Pryce), a callous corporate type. Chumley's old-fashioned confectionery has just become "An Anglo Foods and Haulage Subsidiary" in a hostile takeover. Mr. Chumley frets ineffectually when Farris chemically alters the family recipe for chocolates. Now the candy is made of lard, not chocolate. "We've taken the quality out of the product and put it into the advertising, where it shows," explains Farris, suave as a ferret.

Despite an intensive ad campaign, the unchocolates are rejected by the public -- except for one batch with a very different ingredient as the result of an assembly line tragedy.

Junior management trainee Ian Littleton (Tyler Butterworth), young, naive and klutzy, accidentally knocks three men into the ever-churning chocolate vat. Three big machine burps and they're 12-ounce gift boxes. Just as the conglomerate gobbles up Chumley's, the public gobbles up the high-protein candies. Shades of "Soylent Green."

Though no one else seems terribly concerned, Littleton fears he's made a poor impression his first day on the job. "Should I kill myself? Would that be of help, sir?" Instead Farris promotes him to buy his silence. Littleton's first task as "vice president, special projects" is to round up corpses for more chocolates. His second is to romance the widowed Mrs. Garza (Vanessa Redgrave), whose husband is now a bonbon.

Newly enamored of chemist Felicity (Sammi Davis), Littleton must also service the restless widow, who needs love like a thousand bunnies. She is a trying bore, embarrassingly overplayed by Redgrave. Her scenes are appalling and incessant, but first-time feature director Giles Foster hadn't the sense to leave them on the cutting room floor.

"Consuming Passions" is tasty but not deliciously sinful. Neither is it all empty calories. As a satire on the corporate takeover of the planet Earth, the movie succeeds, but that's not going to stop Fanny Farmer.

Consuming Passions, at the Dupont, is rated R for sexual situations and kinky eats.

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