Bicycling With Molière

What could be an incisive look into the megalomania of actors who can’t catch a break in their work of from each other instead appears in half measures as broad comedy and art appreciation class. The fulcrum in Bicycling with Molière is The Misanthrope, a 400-year-old play brought to the stage by a vain television actor (Gauthier Wilson) seeking respectability. To show he’s only interested in the quality of the production, he brings aboard a retired former co-star (Fabrice Luchini). Their relationship is almost immediately strained -- who gets the bigger role, who gets the girl, that sort of thing—but Bicycling with Molière doesn’t dive deeply into any of it. Instead, the film rotates through the various irritations, played opposite two older actors learning their lines. The performances by Wilson and Luchini are good; they’re both real pros, anyway. But they could sure use more to work with.