If we’re to believe films like Moliere and Shakespeare in Love, history’s most famous playwrights weren’t very creative people. Unable to concoct interesting stories on their own, Moliere and Shakespeare were fortunate enough to have lived a dozen plays each within the span of their first romances. After that, they merely had to transcribe their experiences.
Moliere’s progressively labyrinthine plot follows the French playwright (Duris) through his formative years, when, to free himself from debtor’s prison, he’s forced to school an adulterous aristocrat in theater, so that the old lech may charm a recently widowed marquise with a one-man play. Before Moliere can plot his escape, he falls for the aristocrat’s wife, Elmire (Morante). What ensues is a real-life farce with sporadic laughs, which will inevitably teach the initially pretentious young scribe that comedy has at least as much merit as drama.
There is a possibility that Moliere might be a lot cleverer than I think it is. A lot of the subtler laughs may be derived from references to Moliere plays most of us wouldn’t recognize. In fact, some scenes (such as one in which Elmire hides her husband under a table while attempting to prove that their house guest has more-than-platonic intentions toward her) feels somewhat out of place in the context of the film, but is likely a nod to one of Moliere’s actual works. And a little postscreening research on the playwright made me realize I was supposed to laugh at Moliere’s hastily imagined alias, Tartuffe.
On the other hand, Moliere might be a lot less clever than it thinks it is. Much of the humor involves slapstick, tedious verbal tap-dancing and general buffoonery. Don’t let the period costumes and décor fool you—much of this is lowbrow comedy aimed squarely at the broadest of audiences. Strip away the frilly outfits and makeup, and you’d have a pretty standard romantic comedy.
Like Shakespeare in Love, the film is lightweight and formulaic but effective enough. In both films, the subtle references to famous plays add an element of prestige that the films themselves don’t really deserve. But fewer viewers are likely to pick out the literary bits in Moliere, which is probably a good thing. With pretentiousness, for the most part, out of the way, Moliere is free to be the silly but entertaining farce it was meant to be. And as Moliere learns, there’s plenty of merit in that.
Moliere
***
Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, Laura Morante
Directed by Laurent Tirard
Rated PG-13
Opens Friday