AllMovie

A popular French television actor makes the journey to L'Île de Ré on a mission to convince his old friend, a retired fellow actor, to appear in a stage version of Molière's The Misanthrope. Gauthier (Lambert Wilson) is a handsome actor who plays a beloved cosmetic surgeon on a prominent daytime soap opera, and Serge (Fabrice Luchini) is a once-proud theatre performer who's comparative lack of success has rendered him and bitter middle-aged man. Serge is living a life of peaceful solitude near France's Atlantic coast, when, one day, his old friend Gauthier turns up on his doorstep in a bid to summon him back to the boards. Once Serge learns that the play in question is Molière's The Misanthrope, set to be staged in Paris, his interest is peaked. Later, as the two bickering friends rehearse their lines during bicycle rides down bucolic roads, the appearance of an aspiring porn actress, an alluring Italian divorcée, and a prime piece of island real estate begin to complicate an already sensitive arrangement.