At the time of the American Revolution, France still bore a grudge against Britain (rather than only England since at this point England's and Scotland's crowns had merged) due to France's defeat in the French and Indian War less than 20 years prior. That war stripped France of nearly all of its North American territory (particularly its wealthy Canadian and Louisiana territories).

Up until the Battle of Saratoga in 1778, the French were sympathetic to the Colonists and Benjamin Franklin had been in Paris trying to curry favor from the French Bourbons. After a decisive American victory at Saratoga, the French agreed to a treaty of alliance with the Colonists against Britain.

As to whether or not the Revolution would have succeeded without France is hard to say. French military and economic support was critical for winning the Battle of Yorktown thanks to the efforts of the Marquis de Lafayette, the Comte de Rochambeau, and Admiral de Grasse. However, other individuals such as the Prussian Friedrich von Stueben, the Polish Thaddeus Kosciusko, and the Spanish under Bernardo Galvez all contributed heavily to the success of the American war effort (even though Poland and Prussia were officially neutral). My safe answer is that the Revolution would have failed without the support of France and other European powers like Spain and the Netherlands.

I suppose one could make an argument that the Revolution would have succeeded eventually, but it would have been longer and bloodier. If anyone else has more insight on this topic though, feel free to chime in and help contribute to the discussion.

EDIT: It looks like I did start a discussion :) I'm still very new here so it's good to see my contributions be noticed.