Set in the 17th Century, ‘Molière’ offers its audience all the lavishness that would be expected of a classy costume romp enacted by a stellar cast (Romain Duris is superb in the lead role). The vast majority of the film depicts events which could have been the catalyst for the eponymous hero’s salubrious career. Through use of literary quotation, visual gags, bedroom farce and sumptuous visual-style, Tirard sets out to flatter, amuse and seduce his audience and at this, in the main, he is adroit. What lets this film down, however, is the clumsy frame narrative that tends to confound rather than enlighten the audience through its skewed chronology, and the completely otiose love story which one suspects may have been tacked on as an afterthought to sadly, only maudlin effect. Like the playwright himself, Tirard is clearly at his best when he sticks to comedy.
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