Strident score mars low-key 'Moliere'

MOLIERE — ** 1/2 — Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, Laura Morante; in French, with English subtitles; rated PG-13 (vulgarity, sex, profanity, violence, brief partial nudity)

"Moliere" works all right as a low-key comedy. Unfortunately, French composer Frederic Talgorn's strident score tries to insist that the film is wackier than it really is.

Talgorn's is one of the more obnoxious soundtracks in recent memory. The music is a broad and dominating presence that undercuts a handful of early scenes.

Eventually Talgorn does tone it down — around the midway point — which allows the movie to recover, and leaves the cast scrambling to make up for it.

Romain Duris ("Russian Dolls") plays Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, aka Moliere, in this fictionalized version of events. Filmmaker Laurent Tirard tries to explain how the 17th-century playwright's early life may have influenced his later works.

Lengthy flashback sequences initially find him in debtor's prison. But he's bailed out by Jourdain (Fabrice Luchini), a wealthy merchant who wants Moliere to help him woo a widowed marquise (Ludivine Sagnier). He also wants Moliere to move into his estate and pretend to be a clergyman named Tartuffe. It's part of an elaborate plan to keep Jourdain's activities secret from his wife (Laura Morante). As fate would have it, Moliere winds up falling in love with the neglected Elmire.

Co-screenwriter/director Tirard ("The Story of My Life") throws in some less-successful early sequences, which depict Moliere's attempts to write a tragedy instead of his usual farces. But these scenes, as well as a couple of other unnecessary subplots, merely pad out the film.

Still, the cast is very good. The chemistry between Duris and Morante smolders, while Luchini makes a convincing, bungling aristocrat.

"Moliere" is rated PG-13 for suggestive sexual language (references), a brief sex scene (as well as other sexual contact), scattered profanity, comic violence (some fencing, an accidental shooting and slapstick), and brief partial female nudity. Running time: 120 minutes.

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