'Moliere' fails to be 'Shakespeare'

Laurent Tirard's "Moliere" tries, but ultimately fails, to do for the 17th century French playwright what "Shakespeare in Love" did for the 16th century English one; i.e., provide the romantic inspiration for his later works.

The movie is based on a factual premise. Saddled with debts, most of them from back rent on a theater where he and his acting troupe performed in Paris, Moliere (although at this time he still went by his real name, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) was tossed in debtor's prison, but only for 24 hours. Historians differ on who paid his debts: some say it was his wealthy father and others claim it was the lover of one of the actors in Moliere's troupe. At any rate, immediately after his discharge from prison, he and his troupe began a 12-year theatrical tour of the French provinces, during which time Moliere honed his comic writing and acting skills.

According to the movie, however, Moliere's debts are paid by a Monsieur Jourdain (Fabrice Luchini) on the condition that Moliere (Romain Duris) teaches Jourdain how to act. Jourdain (who would wind up as the main character in Moliere's "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme"), you see, is smitten by Celimene (Ludivine Sagnier) a comely, yet shallow, neighboring widow, whom, at the time Jourdain hires Moliere, Jourdain has yet to even meet face-to-face. But Jourdain thinks he can win Celimene's favors if he can convincingly act out this playlet he wrote in which he reveals his undying love for the widow. There's one major problem, however. Jourdain needs all this teaching to take place on the estate he shares with his wife, Elmire (Laura Morante, pictured above with Duris). Naturally, Jourdain would like to keep his wife from learning about all this Cilimene business, so Moliere shows up in the guise of a priest who has come to tutor Jourdain's youngest daughter. To make matters even more interesting, Moliere shows a lusty romantic interest in Elmire who, while aroused by all this, thinks it unbecoming for a priest to making sexually charged advances.

Now this set-up is a wonderful comic premise and would have worked in the hands of a writer like, well, Moliere himself. It doesn't work here because the script lacks the wit, the charm and the audacity of a Moliere comedy or Tom Stoppard's magnificent screenplay for "Shakespeare in Love." Plus, I never did believe that the Celimene as fashioned by Ms. Sagnier would be all that attractive to the bevy of suitors the film claims are trying to woo her. I think the only reason she is even in here is because the scriptwriters wanted to use this to illustrate Moliere's inspiration for his play "The Misanthrope." But the main problem I have with the film is that I never once bought into the romance between Moliere and Elmire.

Duris plays Moliere as a man who broods more than he loves, who yearns more than he writes. Joseph Fiennes brought Shakespeare to lusty life in "Shakespeare in Love," turning him into a guy you would like to have a pint or two or three of ale with at the nearest pub. Duris' Moliere, on the other hand, is an anthropological study and why someone with the depth and the intelligence of Elmire would give this self-possessed dullard the time of day is beyond me. In "Shakespeare in Love," I rooted for the romance between Will and Viola to end happily; in "Moliere," I couldn't care less.

Grade: C-