Movie Review: Me and Orson Welles
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Courtesy of Freestyle Releasing
It was, literally, the eve of a new era in American theater. It was 1937 and Orson Welles, 23 year-old wunderkind was in the final days of rehearsing his modern-dress production of Julius Caesar when high school student/aspiring actor Richard Samuels wanders past the theater and is cast in the production. The story of what happens over the next several days is engaging, interesting, relatable and must-see-able.
This small British film, directed by Richard Linklater from a script by Holly Gent Palmo and Vince Palmo from the book by Robert Kaplow, captures the many paradoxes involved when human beings try to make art.
(Sadly, the only place in town to see it is at the Suncoast, one of the two best movie houses in Las Vegas and the rare one that welcomes small films like this.)
Here, we meet Welles a year before that radio broadcast of War of the Worlds and two years before Citizen Kane. That Welles is destined for greatness is never in doubt. Portrayed by Christian McKay, a British actor with few credits up to now, he is the essence of confidence and bravura, imbued with the unshakeable certainty that he is, in fact, great and his is the only way. The performance is as much fun to watch as it must have been to do.
Zac Efron is young Richard. He’s very real, a theater nerd whose dream is about to come true. Onscreen Efron — whom I’ve not seen before in a movie — is sweet and assured. Even the scant few dance steps performed this 22 year-old guy who made his mark in the High School Musical film and TV series hint at the promise of a long career and make the viewer yearn for the return of the musical. McKay’s Orson Welles is such a magnificent performance that the picture could fairly be said to be his. But, Efron is an absolute revelation — a redemption of the bad rap most teen heartthrobs carry.
The love interest — “Sonja with a ‘J’ Jones” — is Claire Danes. As assured in her own way as Welles, Sonja has her eye on the prize which, in the long-term is a film career and, in the short, a meeting with David O. Selznick. The other girl in the film is Zoe Kazan, granddaughter of Elia Kazan, who gives a wonderfully of-the-time performance as an aspiring writer who wants to place a story in the New Yorker.
This film might take place in 1937, but it is no stolid, dusty period piece. It crackles with life, making it as relevant as today. And, in truth, it is relevant. Creating art is not an easy or pretty process. It can be a grueling and dark process that the artist accepts as the norm and others find somewhat shocking.
At first I thought I liked Me and Orson Welles so much because, like the character Richard I am a theater geek. This slice of history, even though it took place before I was born, wasn’t news to me. Because I love and have studied theater, I know the story of the Mercury and of Welles, not to mention of other characters portrayed in the movie — John Houseman and Martin Gabel, among them.
But lots of people I know saw this merely because they’d read it was good, not because they love or know about this stuff. And they thought it was a terrific film.
You should go.
(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
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