The opening scene of “Coco Before Chanel” may shock people who thought they were seeing a film about perfume and clothing. The movie begins with two sisters, dressed in rags, being dumped by their father at a Catholic orphanage. It is not exactly the beginning one would expect from a biopic about a famous fashion designer.

When we next see Gabrielle, nicknamed Coco (Audrey Tautou, “The Da Vinci Code”), she is working in a seedy bar as a singer with her sister Adrienne, played by French actress Marie Gillain, and as a seamstress for the performers. Unlike flaky Adrienne, the pale, chain-smoking Coco is practical and cynical. She uses sex as leverage with wealthy bar patron Balsan (French actor Benoit Poelvoorde).

Much of the film works well because it balances real-world cynicism with a conventional rags-to-riches tale. The acid-tongued Coco initially wants to use Balsan’s connections to go to Paris and become a singer, but instead becomes a live-in mistress at his country estate, the site of much aristocratic partying.

The buffoonish Balsan tries to use Coco simply as a sexual plaything, but Coco has other ideas. She uses her wit to ingratiate herself with his aristocratic friends, who are fascinated by Coco’s unusual sense of style. She is disdainful of the frilly, florid fashions of the day and instead opts for plainer, more comfortable attire, sometimes donning men’s clothes. Soon the orphan begins to turn into a trend-setting designer for the rich.

Coco’s newfound ambition to be a designer is both fueled and complicated by Balsan’s English friend Boy Capel (Alessandro Nivola, “The Eye”). Capel loves Coco’s fierce independence and offers to help her start her own designing shop. However, he’s also an impetuous cad who is engaged to marry another woman. Balsan, more worldly and stable but wary of Coco’s ambitions, warns her against pursuing a career and a relationship with Capel.

“Coco Before Chanel” goes awry with the introduction of this love triangle. Until this point, the film is a witty examination of a tough woman who will do anything ­— except compromise her independence — to succeed. Her steely resolve evaporates when Capel appears, but it is hard to understand why. His wooden character seems to have only a superficial understanding of Coco, and the film barely explains her attraction to him.

Balsan is infinitely more compelling. Poelvoorde’s portrayal makes the character funny and larger than life. He is a boor, but he is also wise in the ways of the world and helps Coco forge her path in the fashion world. He genuinely likes, if not loves, her and is concerned that Capel’s infatuation will hurt her. The dynamic of Balsan and Coco’s friendship proves far more interesting than the woman’s romance with Capel.

The film’s pacing is equally underwhelming, and its reliance on subtitles may turn off some viewers. “Coco Before Chanel” is not boring, but its pacing is leisurely at best.

That is, until the conclusion, during which a major event in Coco’s life is treated like an afterthought. The film zips through the final scene without examining how the event affects Coco and how it relates to her future as a famous designer.

Although the film falters overall in its timing and depiction of its central love triangle, Tautou’s performance transcends these flaws. She embodies both ruthlessness and naïveté. Her character callously dismisses Balsan, her benefactor, as a fool. She lies about her background to gain social acceptance, but she also cares deeply for Adrienne and worries that her sister is being strung along by her nobleman lover.

Her energy and passion know no bounds, and it is impossible not to cheer her on even if her path to success may seem a little shady to a straight-laced American audience.

Ultimately, the film is compelling because it portrays what happened to a worldwide fashion phenomenon before she became legendary. We get only a glimpse, in a flash-forward at the very end of the film, of Coco after she has entered the fashion world.

Although that unwanted little girl from the film’s inauspicious start is still faintly visible beneath the surface, it is clear that she is morphing into the fierce, independent sophisticate that was Coco Chanel.

— Contact Joel Dobben.