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Me and Orson Welles (2008)

Director: Richard Linklater

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12 reviews

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From Time Out London

We first meet Zac Efron’s Richard, the ‘me’ of Richard Linklater’s charming new film about the insecurities and comradeship of actors, as a distracted, 17-year-old New York student, reading Noël Coward in class instead of Shakespeare. It’s 1937 and Richard is a mildly cocky, slightly vain youngster who compares himself to a photo of John Gielgud on a book cover and tells a girl he meets in a jazz store that ‘I’m sort of an actor’. Minutes later, he stumbles on some real actors gathered to rehearse Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre production of ‘Julius Caesar’ and lays down some chat about playing the ukulele. Next thing, he’s got a bit part. Weekly pay: zilch. ‘Kid’s got balls,’ mutters Welles (Christian McKay), a cigar between his teeth. Let rehearsals begin…

Robert Kaplow’s source novel and Linklater’s sprightly adaptation sprinkle a little fiction on Welles’s very real, radical staging of ‘Julius Caesar’ and offer a sideways view of one of the most precocious, flawed talents of the twentieth century. In 1937, Welles was just 22, pre-‘War of the Worlds’, pre-‘Citizen Kane’, but already a darling of the New York theatre scene and able to wrest art from chaos on a wing and a prayer. Efron’s Richard – played with an attractive, puckish energy and loosely based on a real character – is a window on Welles’s world at just enough of a distance from the great man that the director’s loud personality doesn’t dominate. All roads lead to Welles, but we also witness a brief affair between Richard and Mercury staffer Sonja Jones (Claire Danes), during which Richard learns that the public and the private are one and the same in this theatrical hothouse. Even the loss of his virginity infringes on Welles’s mantra: ‘There is one simple rule: I own the store!’

McKay’s turn as Welles is hugely enjoyable, the right mix of extreme confidence and a dash of vulnerability. Physically and vocally, he’s very convincing: his Welles is a bullish presence among his actors but he also displays cracks in the great man’s armour: he whispers a sincere ‘thank you’ to his producer (Eddie Marsan) and tells Richard how he’s adapting ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ for radio: ‘“Ambersons” is about how everything gets taken away from you,’ he says, a reminder that Welles lost both parents by the time he was 15.

What’s most admirable about Linklater’s production is that it never loses sight of the play at its heart. The crescendo is not a romance or any other distraction, but the outcome of rehearsals during which we and the cast believe a disaster is pending. There’s a strong ensemble flavour, characterised by the simultaneously selfish and clubbable tendencies of the actors, which makes for a lightly comic experience but also for a portrait of a theatre company that feels warm and true.

Author: Dave Calhoun

Time Out London Issue 2050: 3-9 December, 2009

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User reviews of this film

John Cooper said...

Posted on Jan 31 2010 23:35 Watching this film helps you understand why Orson
Welles is one of the most overrated film directors of all time, and why Citizen Kane is the most overrated film of all time. If the biographical detail in this film is accurate, we are asked to accept that` being a genius `and `being an amoral shit` are part and parcel of the Orson Welles persona. Christian McKay 's Orson Welles
so convincing that I forgot that the egotistical
bastard on the screen is just an interpretation. Zac Efron's character Richard is extremely sympathetic and
it is through his eyes, that we see the vanity and the
spiritual emptiness which is at the heart of the technically proficient and charismatic Welles character.
I've always wondered why a dull, unappealing film like Citizen Kane is revered by film critics.
so many critics . .. . . This film has helped me understand why . .. . Technically innovative, but too concerned with its own importance . .. like Welles himself.

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Matt Guzzo said...

Posted on Dec 29 2009 18:07 I am sick of films using dead people who can not choose if they want to be in them or not. Weather the film is good or not its sickening and these people should concentrate on making good films without the need of using a great name like Wells.

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Walter said...

Posted on Dec 22 2009 07:41 Totally engaging film and a fascinating look back stage of one of the landmark theatre productions. Amazing cast, led by McKay, And Efron is a total surprise. I forgot he was in the film, he so totally disappeared into the character.

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jennycee said...

Posted on Dec 20 2009 22:54 Good acting especially "Orson" and the finished article,"Ceasar" was great but the film was a nonentity, no plot, no excitement, boring with a capital B

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usman khawaja said...

Posted on Dec 14 2009 06:20 i want to see this and if it is a turkey than dave calhoun you better start praying right now as orson welles is not around to save you and i swear ........

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Peter Roberts said...

Posted on Dec 10 2009 14:37 If you fancy yourself as a luvvy you might enjoy this film, but if you are a mere fleah and blood mortal you will be bored witless. No plot. Excessive over-acting. Dull, dull, dull.

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richard hepburn said...

Posted on Dec 06 2009 23:28 A terrific film , superbly cast . Lyrical ,rhythmic and poignantly evocative of time place and the enigma that was Wells .Mr Linklater conveys his sensitive and well tuned appreciation of Well's capricious and precocious person and paints the whole with affection and due regard . It must have been bloody marvelous to have been in the audience at the Mercury for the first night of Ceasar . Mr Linlater

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Adam said...

Posted on Dec 04 2009 21:16 Just saw the film tonight. A light breezy comedy, with a great soundtrack and strong, likeable acting - go enjoy!

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Luise Susette said...

Posted on Dec 04 2009 13:30 I attended the London premiere and thought the film was fantastic. It's hard to say if it's a drama, a romance or a comedy - I think it's all of these things and more. It offers the right balance of seriousness and entertainment - and very skillfully. One of those films that may inspire one to consider their own possible career in the theatre.

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Luna said...

Posted on Dec 03 2009 00:09 A great movie - saw it in New York - big hearted and moving

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Luna said...

Posted on Dec 03 2009 00:09 A great movie - saw it in New York - big hearted and moving

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Mona said...

Posted on Dec 02 2009 02:25 Can't wait to see this film if and when it comes out in Australia.

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