A French Farce

Moliere - 3/5

It seems that in the Summer of 2007 most of the alternatives to the Hollywood blockbuster come with a Gallic flavour. We've already had a superior thriller (Tell No One), a musical biopic (La Vie En Rose) and an eclectic compilation of short films (Paris Je T'aime). Now comes the costume drama.

Most of us in this country being rather ignorant when it comes to foreign literature, Moliere is considered one of the greatest of French playwrights and one of the greatest writers of comedy anywhere in the world. This film, using a similar device to Shakespeare in Love or Becoming Jane, imagines some of his own works back into his own life to offer a fictitious account of how he became the writer he did.

The plot concerns Moliere, leading a debt-ridden troupe of actors, hired by a rich old fool (Fabrice Luchini) to school him in acting in order to perform a play to impress a sharp tongued young widower (Ludivine Sagnier). However, during his assignment, Moliere falls in love with his employer's wife (Laura Morante). From this ensues a plot you'd expect from a theatrical farce - disguises and plots and mistaken identities, etc...

There is a definite theatricality about it all as you might expect, which is both a strength and a weakness. The performances are larger than life, which works brilliantly on a comic level - Luchini's preening peacock is particularly amusing. It works less well when real heart is called for - Luchini's sudden self-realisation and change of heart makes sense dramatically and would work on the stage, but is maybe too sudden and too complete for cinematic credibility. Really only Morante, as the emotional core of the film and muse for Moliere, manages to inject any real emotion into proceedings. This woldn't matter so much except that they point they are trying to make is that Moliere was innovative in placing real heart and soul, portrayal of the human condition, into comedy. The comedy works, but it falters in other places.

As for the lead - Romain Duris (see previously as Arsene Lupin) - seems to have divided critics. I've read one review saying his performance saves the film and another that he's dreadful. Personally I found him eminently watchable - he is gifted with a slightly odd physiognomy which seems designed to play this kind of slightly larger than life character. He brings a likeability and energy which keeps things moving forward very nicely.

So, not entirely successful in its own intentions, but treated as a light-hearted, farce-like comedy makes for enjoyable and fun viewing.