Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais left an indelible mark on history. As a playwright he penned The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. As an adviser to Louis XV and a spy, he averted a war between Britain and France. And as a merchant, he surreptitiously supplied the American Revolutionaries with crucial arms shipments. Unfortunately the dark, lavish production by director Édouard Molinaro (La Cage aux Folles) isn't as titillating as its subject. The film, which unfolds during the decade preceding the French Revolution, begins as a bawdy good romp, but rather than articulating the unrest of the commoner or extolling the humorous exploits of the protagonist's womanizing ways, it wallows in the effete malaise of the bourgeoisie and a languid stagings of Beaumarchais's plays.

What keeps Beaumarchais light and engaging is Fabrice Luchini in the title role. He casts an inexorable exuberance as the morally ambiguous wit who impishly dances between the comforts of the monarchy and the politically perilous efforts to subvert its rules of censorship and birthright privileges. Sandrine Kiberlain makes a delicate addition as Marie-Thérèse, Beaumarchais's wife, and Florence Thomassin is a sassy treat as the most-desired nymphet in Versailles. At the Kendall Square.