Molière’s Le médecin malgré lui is still a chaotic headache

Is it worth the watch?

Honestly, if you have a soft spot for classic French farce, you’ll probably find something to chuckle at here. If you prefer your dialogue modern and your camera work steady, maybe skip it. It’s definitely for the crowd that likes watching people get hit with sticks for an hour.

It’s Molière, so you know the drill. It’s all about people lying, people panicking, and people who are definitely not doctors pretending to know what they’re doing with medicine. The whole thing feels a bit like watching someone try to put out a fire with a squirt gun. It's frantic. Maybe a little too frantic at times.

Pierre Lecomte is playing the woodcutter, and he has this way of rolling his eyes that almost makes the whole production worth it. You can tell he’s just trying to survive the scene without cracking up. It’s a bit like watching someone hold a plate of food steady in a hurricane. 🌪️

There is this one moment near the middle where the dialogue gets so fast I swear the actors are competing for who can finish a sentence first. It made my head spin. I’m not sure if it was meant to be that chaotic, or if they just really wanted to get to lunch break.

The sets look like they’ve seen better days, too. There’s a backdrop that looks suspiciously like a painting of a forest that someone might have slapped together in a garage. It’s charming, I guess? It feels less like a movie and more like a stage play that someone accidentally left a camera running during. It reminded me a bit of the awkward framing in A Mad House, where the space feels a bit too cramped for the actors to move.

Anyway, do you need to see this today? Probably not. Is it a fun way to kill an afternoon if you like old-school comedy? Sure.

Random Notes:

• The fake Latin phrases are absolute gibberish, but they sure sound confident.
• I’m pretty sure someone’s wig was sliding off in the background during the third act.
• The music choices are... bold. Maybe a bit too loud.
• Watching them try to diagnose a perfectly healthy person with 'love sickness' never gets old, in a stupid sort of way.

It’s not perfect. It’s not even trying to be. It’s just loud, messy, and occasionally clever enough to keep you watching. Not every movie needs to be a masterpiece, right?