<strong><span class="subhead">&lsquo;Coco Before Chanel&rsquo; &#x2605;&#x2605; 1/2</span></strong></p><p><strong>Rated: </strong><strong>PG-13 | Time: 1:45</strong></p><p><strong>French with subtitles</strong></p><p>Waifish Audrey Tautou is the main selling point of &ldquo;Coco Before Chanel,&rdquo; a look at the early years of the woman who would become the 20th century&rsquo;s greatest fashion icon.</p><p>And yet an odd thing happens about 30 minutes into Anne Fontaine&rsquo;s sumptuously mounted film. Despite the presence of the star of &ldquo;Amelie,&rdquo; we cannot take our eyes off Belgian actor Beno&icirc;t Poelvoorde, a nondescript, slightly balding fellow who plays young Coco&rsquo;s first lover and benefactor. He dominates his every scene and, when he&rsquo;s not on screen, we find ourselves looking for him.</p><p>Without him, &ldquo;Coco&rdquo; is a tepid wallow in visual lushness.</p><p>Fontaine&rsquo;s script follows young Gabrielle (later Coco) from her childhood in an orphanage to her stint as a bar girl and singer in a provincial night spot during France&rsquo;s Belle Epoque. That&rsquo;s where she meets Etienne Balsan (Poelvoorde), the hedonistic heir to a family fortune.</p><p>He&rsquo;s not particularly handsome but he&rsquo;s smart and charming. Plus he&rsquo;s the rare bird who isn&rsquo;t turned off by Coco&rsquo;s lacerating wit and dour opinion of men.</p><p>Since neither believes in love they&rsquo;re the ideal pair. When Etienne&rsquo;s tour of duty with an army reserve unit ends, he says thanks for the good times and vanishes. No harm done.</p><p>Except that Coco, her dreams of a singing career dashed, shows up some months later at his estate outside Paris. Etienne is surprised but not upset and simply hides her away in an upstairs room.</p><p>Coco may chafe at this snub but not enough to give up free room and board. Besides, she has time to indulge her love of horses and to develop her ideas about fashion. She&rsquo;s appalled by the ostentatious hats currently in vogue and the corseted dresses that leave women unable to take a deep breath. She&rsquo;s an advocate of simpler, cleaner, looser.</p><p>She finds a patron in a famous actress (Emmanuelle Devos) and something more in English businessman Arthur Capel (Alessandro Nivola), who becomes the love of her life. </p><p>The oh-so-civilized Etienne can only shrug. But inside his heart is breaking.</p><p>The usually charming Tautou is not endearing here. Coco could be mercurial, sullen and aloof, a reality this appealing actress tries to finesse but cannot overcome.</p><p>Her new suitor is a stiff, and Nivola cannot make him interesting.</p><p>But Poelvoorde&rsquo;s Etienne keeps revealing new depths long after everything else about &ldquo;Coco&rdquo; has stopped surprising us.