ME AND ORSON WELLES
Directed by Richard Linklater
Produced by Linklater, Marc Samuelson & Ann Carli
Written by Holly Gent Palmo & Vince Palmo, based on the novel by Robert Kaplow
Released by Freestyle Releasing
UK/USA. 112 min. Rated PG-13
With Zac Efron, Claire Danes, Christian McKay, Ben Chaplin, Zoe Kazan, Eddie Marsan, Kelly Reilly & James Tupper 
 

In 1937, the 22-year-old boy wonder Orson Welles took on the conventions of Broadway, staging a modern-dress, barebones production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, with the director starring as Brutus. (Now that everything from Richard III to Tosca has been molded to a similarly dark, minimalist production design, it could be taken for granted how innovative his ideas were.) Welles, along with the Old Vic Theatre in England, was part of a theatrical movement delving into the Bard’s text for the characters’ psychological clues, a departure from the more presentational pageantry of the early 20^th century. Richard Linklater, a man of film through and through, offers a sepia-toned valentine to this milestone of the American theater, but with a script that needed an out-of-town tryout. 

Theatrical history takes a supporting role to the backstage shenanigans leading up to Julius Caesar’s opening night. Given that most in the audience who would be drawn to this lighthearted period piece already know the outcome, there’s no suspense as to whether Welles’s company will pull it together in time, despite little rehearsal and warring egos. By far, the best, and most vital, sequence is the condensed version of the politically relevant production.

So what we see instead is anticlimactic: a vain leading lady; a bed-hopping, tyrannical director impervious to any criticism; and the inevitable love triangle between Welles, his assistant Sonja, and the film’s narrator, 17-year-old Richard (a charisma-free Zac Efron), who bluffs his way into a walk-on role. The kid’s a last-minute replacement for an actor who had “personality problems” with Welles.

For a film laden with dialogue, Linklater doesn’t give his cast the extra shot of adrenaline it badly needs—the direction to pick up the pace. Instead, there are enough pauses in between the lines for the audience to virtually see the jokes and slangy banter fall flat. (Richard: “Fame, love, adventure, I can offer you all that…at the movies.”) Little of it is delivered with ease, except by newcomer Christian McKay as Welles, who certainly has the resonance of the star’s booming baritone and towering physicality. As the love interest Sonja, Claire Danes seems to be aware of the clichéd script’s shortcomings, and tries to overcome it by relying on her wide-eyed charm. With eyebrows raised and constantly smiling, she comes off as a little bit desperate, and plays almost every scene in the same manner.

Though the most famous and outsized personality in this fictionalized tale, Welles plays second fiddle to Efron’s Richard. Based on this performance, the jury is still out on whether there is life after High School Musical for the former teen idol—he’s far too laid back to be believable as a small-town boy bursting to make it big on Broadway, or for his character to be referred to as a “God created actor” by Welles. Kent Turner
December 4, 2009