Me and Orson Welles (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)Orson Welles was a genius in many, many areas. He was an incredible actor, a brilliant director and a showman of the first order. He was also, from many accounts, a major jerk; obsessive and controlling, manipulative and unpleasant. Someone who at least as nasty to his friends as to his enemies. He was, to lift a quote from a certain movie, not a brutal man, but a man who did brutal things.
All these elements of his considerable personality are on display in Richard Linkletter's newest film, Me and Orson Welles. The movie tells the story of a seventeen-year-old boy named Richard (though he's mostly referred to as "Junior"). He's played by Zac Efron (looking sexier than ever), in his finest role to date, which isn't saying a lot.
Richard is a reasonably naive boy who winds up meeting Welles as the great man is preparing for his 1937 stage production of Julius Caesar, a ground-breaking presentation that moved the story into modern times, dressing the cast in fascist uniforms and casting an obvious Jew as the poet Cinna. Richard ends up in the play as a servant to Welles' Brutus, a role which requires him to learn to play the ukulele after claiming he already knew how.
Richard meets all the famous players of the Mercury Theatre, most notably Joseph Cotton, Norman Lloyd and George Coulouris. He also meets, and falls in love with, the beautiful Sonja Jones (Claire Danes). Like Richard, she's a fictional character, and also like Richard, she's far less interesting than the real characters around them.
The movie is completely stolen by Christian McKay's performance as Welles. It is as letter-perfect as any I've ever seen. He has the look, he has the voice and he has the attitude of Welles, playing him as a man who never bothered to merely speak when he could instead declaim. He simply is Welles, warts and all. Expect his performance to get a Best Supporting Actor nomination, and probable win, at the next Oscars.
This is probably the best movie I've seen this year, with Up in the Air as a very close second. The movie captures the spirit of the theatre and the character of Welles like no movie I've ever seen before. I cannot possibly praise it enough. It might be hard to find in your area (it's considered something of an art film), but if you can track it down, it's well worth seeing.

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