Starring Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, and Ludivine Sagnier. In French with English subtitles. Rated PG.

You can see why the North American rights to Laurent Tirard's second feature were snapped up. Molií¨re describes how the penniless actor Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (Romain Duris) is rescued from debtor's prison by a rich parvenu (Fabrice Luchini) in exchange for literary assistance that will help him cut a finer sexual and intellectual figure in the frosty aristocratic salon of Célimí¨ne (Ludivine Sagnier). To conceal his real purpose, Poquelin assumes the identity of a religious hypocrite named Tartuffe, and during the course of his subsequent interactions either assumes that role or encounters virtually all of the famous characters who will populate his comedies after he is reborn as the comic genius Molií¨re.

It's clear the distributors were hoping to intrigue the same viewers who fell hook, line, and sinker for Shakespeare in Love. After all, the production values are similar, and the cast is at least as photogenic but it hasn't worked out that way.

For one thing, Molií¨re's cinematography is boring, with nearly identical shots of departing coaches appearing almost as frequently as that maddeningly stupid CBC Radio Two refrain, "Music for everyone".

Unfortunately, the best element of the film isn't really subject to translation. Tirard and cowriter Grégoire Vigneron make great sport of the Comédie Franí§aise style of declamation, turning classic French verse into what sounds like Catalan. They assume that the audience is as familiar with Molií¨re's universe as Stratford habitués are with the Bard's. And since a typical three-line exchange revolves around different meanings of the verb baiser (in the 17th century, it usually meant "to kiss", whereas now it can equally mean "to fuck"), most of the best laughs are lost on the Frenchless.

All of Molií¨re's pleasures are verbal and cultural, so if this terra is incognita to you, you're better off staying away.