Molière exploits a brief blind spot in the artist's personal history to stage an elaborate mash-up between his two best-loved plays, Tartuffe and The Misanthrope, the key events of which are presented as incidents in the young actor's life. Audiences already familiar with these works — the impostor Tartuffe deceives a family disguised as a religious man, while a lovestruck buffoon attempts to woo the conceited Celimene — may appreciate the cartwheels required to meld the two stories together, but others may find the circumstances forced.

As Tirard sees it, Molière's grand ambition was to create a noble tragedy, but the demands of his public required him to deliver comedies instead. So, Tirard takes it upon himself to invent a great unrequited love in Molière's past, the vestiges of which can be found in his plays.

This is hogswallop, pure and simple, distracting from what was in fact personal about Molière's work — namely, his pointed social criticism and shrewd analysis of human hypocrisy. And so Molière is ultimately second-rate Molière, an attempt to recapture the writer's appeal in a story that positions him as the central character. It worked for Shakespeare in Love, though that film benefited from Tom Stoppard's touch and a considerably more appealing cast.

Watching Romain Duris in the lead, it's hard to resist wondering what Johnny Depp might have done with the part. Though fantasy casting isn't really fair, this far-cry-from-handsome actor is hardly cut out for comedy. Characters are frequently seen laughing at his antics, which is the movie's way of telling us he is funny, but only one scene (in which he gives a rather convincing imitation of a horse) seemed to inspire the same reaction from the audience.

As classical beauties go, it's hard to do better than Laura Morante (The Son's Room), and it is her character who not only encourages the rather frivolous young man to improve his art but later inspires his best writing — or so Tirard tells it. Unfortunately, Molière is such the scoundrel, the only reason to root for their relationship is the fact that her absent-minded husband (Fabrice Luchini) is so busy pursuing his own extracurricular interests (in the form of Swimming Pool's Ludivine Sagnier) that he deserves to be cuckolded.

Now, Luchini is perfectly suited to the task of broad caricature, and the movie's most amusing bits feature his character indulging in self-congratulatory acts of artistic expression. But lost in the exercise is any insight into Molière's writing or any relevance to today, making his achievements seem more frivolous — and considerably less amusing — than they actually were.

[as featured in The Miami Herald]