ME AND ORSON WELLES

"I AM ORSON WELLES," shouts Christian McKay at the top of his voice to his stage crew. McKay (who plays Welles) is the man, he looks acts, and sounds just like him. He is a marvel to watch, hypnotic, and electrifying. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is not.

"Me and Orson Welles" is about Richard Samuels (played by Zac Efron), a teenager who is cast in Welles' production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar". While discovering the ins and outs of the stage, he becomes acquainted with Welles, the crew, and Sonya (Claire Danes), a pretty secretary. A romance ensues between Richard and Sonya while Welles is trying to put on "Caesar" in a very limited amount of time (a week).

The movie is fun to watch when Welles is on screen. McKay brings just the right amount of arrogance, genius, and kindness to Welles so the audience looks at him in disdain, but are also wowed by his knowledge. The main story is not about Welles though, it is about Richard and his affair with Sonya. The writers who adapted this from the book did not seem to know where they were going with it though. There is no clear path as to who the main characters are, why conflict arises, and why the audience should care. If a movie has no plot, it usually means the film is a character study. The writers did not know which character to study though, and this is why the film simply does not work.

Every time McKay is off the screen, "Me and Orson Welles" just gets bogged down by a boring sub-plot involving Richard and another girl named Gretta, or just a boring sub-plot involving Richard. Every scene without McKay seems way too long, and director Ricard Linklater seems to not know what to do without him. The film is not even two hours long, but the editor could have cut out 15 minutes of the movie anyway. The costumes, sets, and make-up are very well done though, all reflecting 1937 (the year the film takes place). The best technical aspect of the film is the score though, the big band sounding score really transports the film to 1937 more than anything else.

The film is enjoyable enough, McKay, good humor, and a very intricate look at how a play is created keep the film afloat. Until the last third of the film. Linklater and the writers tried to come up with a conflict to keep "Me and Orson Welles" going, but it makes the film sink like a stone. A love triangle ensues after Richard has fallen in love, and the climax is very, well, anti-climactic. The ending is such a downer, so sad, and so long, that it decreases any joy that was had during the first 2/3 of the film. The ending is the worst that can be done, it just puts the audience right back to where the film started, like nothing happened. See this film for McKay only, he is the perfect Orson Welles. His performance will hypnotize anyone who even glances at him, if only the rest of "Me and Orson Welles" was like that too.

Verdict: WAIT FOR VIDEO

**/***** (2/5 stars)