Review of film: “ME AND ORSON WELLES”

2009, 12-08:

Review of film:  “ME AND ORSON WELLES”

Director: 

Richard Linklater.

Writers: 

Robert Kaplow (novel).

[Screenplay:]

Holly Gent Palmo

Vincent Palmo Jr.

Starring: 

Zac Efron

Claire Danes

Christian McKay

Ben Chaplin

Zoe Kazan

Eddie Marsan

Kelly Reilly

James Tupper

Leo Bill

Al Weaver

Iain McKee

Simon Lee Phillips

Simon Nehan

Imogen Poots

Patrick Kennedy

Janie Dee

Marlene Sidaway

Garrick Hagon

Megan Maczko

Travis Oliver

Nathan Osgood

Robert Wilfort

Michael Brandon.

MPAA Rating: 

PG-13 for sexual references and smoking

Quotes: 

“ The kid’s got balls! ”

“ Have you tried Wheaties? ”

“ How’d I do?” … “I cried! ”

“ …  remember…  well for the rest of your life. ”

“ Get in here! ”

“ You’re fired! ”

“ How the hell do I TOP this?! ”

MY Rating: 

8 of 10 stars (based on an advance screening of the 114-minute film)…

           

         Lives will change since “MERCURY” is Rising

It’s 1937 when this movie starts...  In retrospect (& giving facts that are NOT covered in the film:), that was the next-to-last year of the Great Depression in the U.S….  The Japanese were bombing parts of China…  Amelia Earhart disappeared flying over the Pacific… 

…  Radio was the “big deal” in everyday entertainment, & it often relied on celebrities from the theater and vaudeville. One of the well-known names in radio then was ORSON WELLES.  Born in Kenosha, WI in 1915, he started acting professionally at the Gate Theater in Dublin, Ireland at age 16…

…  Welles returned to the U.S. a few years or so later, after earning acclaim for his various acting roles in Ireland, and became very well known as an expert on Shakespeare from working on a large writing project called “Everybody's Shakespeare”… 

…  He soon joined Katharine Cornell's acting company & toured in three off-Broadway productions.  When a Broadway opening of “Romeo and Juliet”  fell-thru, he staged his OWN drama festival with the Todd School & utilizing actors he brought over from the Gates Theater…

…  When that proved a huge success, followed by a highly-regarded revival of “Romeo and Juliet”, he caught the attention of John Houseman, who had a primary role in the WPA’s Federal Theatre Project (FTP) & was seeking an exceptional lead actor for his projects (which were designed to put unemployed theater performers and employees to work)… 

…  By 1935 (at age 20), Welles was already appearing on radio as an actor, to supplement his theatre earnings (which helped with household expenses for him & his actress wife Virginia whom he’d married a year earlier)… 

…  In 1936, Houseman hired Orson to direct a play for the Negro Theater Unit of the FTP.  He got great praise (& tours around the country) for his “Voodoo” version of “Macbeth” (set in the court of Haitian King Henri Christophe, using voodoo witch doctors for the three Weird Sisters)…

…  He was eagerly lauded as a prodigy for his directing and acting, & that increased with his work on the very political operetta “THE CRADLE WILL ROCK”…

…  Disliking the way the government was operating the FTP, Houseman & Welles RESIGNED from that project & formed their own group called the Mercury Theatre, which used a company of actors who soon became particularly well-known & stayed with them for years… 

…  Their first production was scheduled to be a highly edited-down & “politicized” version of “JULIUS CAESAR” set in contemporary FASCIST Italy [then run by Benito Mussolini], wherein the poet Cinna would be killed at the hands of a secret POLICE force rather than by a “mob”…

…  This point is essentially where this MOVIE begins (& the above facts are NOT really detailed by the film):

…  A young student named Richard Samuels (ZAC EFRON) is bored in a classroom, & prefers reading his own book rather than one being discussed by the teacher.  He wants to be an ACTOR, &, in visiting a music store after school, he chances to meet a young lady, Gretta Adler (ZOE KAZAN), who’s also a “dreamer” like him, with her goal being to become a writer.  He’s very friendly and gentlemanly towards her… 

…  Zac then goes to the MERCURY THEATRE where the newly-formed group is trying to set up “shop”, hoping to get some work there.  When he meets Orson Welles (CHRISTIAN MCKAY), in order to get an acting role in the planned “JULIUS CAESAR” production, he brashly claims that he can play a “ukelele” (which would “stand in” for the “lute” planned for the production)…

…  Liking his attitude, Christian immediately HIRES him for the play (with the role of Lucius), & the film is in essence the story of what went on to get that production in front of the public…

…  Altho she tends to “ignore” the other male actors who regularly “hit” on her, the sort of “manager” for the company, Sonja Jones (CLAIRE DANES), takes a liking to 17-year-old Zac (seemingly for his looks & his straightforward honesty rather than the duplicity & “b.s.” she regularly encounters from many of the others)… 

…  That interest from Claire gets Zac especially “noticed” by the other male actors: ladies-man Joseph Cotten (having the role of Publius in the play, & played by JAMES TUPPER);  & Norman Lloyd (having the role of Cinna, played by LEO BILL)…

…  Also, George Coulouris (having the role of Mark Antony, played by BEN CHAPLIN);  Joe Holland (having the role of Julius Caesar, played by SIMON NEHAN);  Grover Burgess (having the role of Ligarius, played by PATRICK KENNEDY);  & John Hoyt (having the role of Decius, played by TRAVIS OLIVER)…

…  Zac works diligently on his small role in the play, & wants his mother (JANIE DEE) & grandmother (MARLENE SIDAWAY) to feel he’s making lots of “PROGRESS” in life… 

…  He’s fully believable in how he gets “caught up” in his relationship with Claire, & how HURT he is when she sees other people…  (As to the Gretta character, we see her again around midway in the film when he tries to HELP her, and again towards the end of the film)…

…  Very early on, we see that Orson (playing the role of Brutus) is exceptionally “FULL” of himself, regularly making unreasonable demands on others, and brow-beating John Houseman (EDDIE MARSAN) + some crew members…

…  More than that, Orson (Christian) is rakishly openly “HITTING” on whatever females he fancies at the moment, such as cast member Muriel Brassler (having the role of Portia, & played by KELLY REILLY), & Evelyn Allen (having the role of Calpurnia, & played by MEGAN MACZKO)…

…  Zac is impressed when Orson takes him to a RADIO broadcast (where Orson drives the other actors crazy by his ad-libbing), & there are some references made to Orson’s possibly working in MOVIES in the future… 

…  Zac shows he feels people should be treated fairly, & he tends to stand up for what he believes (even when that puts him at odds with Orson at times)…

…  As shown in this film, Orson is basely bombastic, brusque & DICTATORIAL in his dealings with others.  He could be very charming when he “wanted” something from people (like for Zac to come back to playing the role of Lucius), but he’s seen saying the SAME supposedly special “individual” comments to a NUMBER of different people… 

…  Orson’s seen as an easily-angered person who’s very vengeful when he feels he’s been “crossed”.  He readily flits around with other females, but gets deeply enraged if anyone TALKS about that & about his then-pregnant wife (who’s briefly seen in one scene when she arrives unexpectedly at the theater)…

…  Will the play they’re working on ever get PERFORMED for the public, and, if so, how will the public “REACT” to the unusual way it was planned?…  What will become of the characters that ZAC & ambitious CLAIRE play?…  What happens in the life of Orson Welles?…  The movie “answers” just SOME of that in part…

 …  This film basically covers just the start of the Mercury Theatre project, & does NOT go into how Welles came to be considered a GENIUS for his later work in plays done on radio (including the October 30, 1938 radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’ story “WAR OF THE WORLDS”, which frightened many in the country)…

…  The movie also does not speak about Orson’s directing and / or acting in “CITIZEN KANE”, “THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS” (a story that is alluded to in this film), “OTHELLO”, “TOUCH OF EVIL” and others (before he passed away in 1986)…

…  I feel Christian does a WONDERFUL job “channeling” the sound, tone & “attitude” of Welles, & may well get an Oscar nomination for his powerful and spirited work… 

…  Zac is quite effective in his role, and Claire is finely “breezy” in her character, with quite good performances by the other major actors…  The movie is good at delineating the “INDIVIDUALITY” of the various characters & at setting up an effective “ATMOSPHERE” & “MOOD” of the times…  

…  One person I talked to after the film stated it had been “boring” to him--  but I found it to be an unusually WELL-DONE story, showing the “blood, sweat & FEARS” that infuse many in the acting community…

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