A trailer for Richard Linkalater’s “Me & Orson Welles,” starring Zac Efron, Christian McKay, and Claire Danes finally has a U.S. trailer a month after finally finding itself some U.S. distribution (and a year after it premiered at TIFF 2008).
Without beating a dead horse, we really don’t have too many things to say about this one. Linklater is a nice guy and we’re generally rooting for the indie director who seems to have carved out a little niche for himself in Austin outside Hollywood, but ‘Orson Welles’ is essentially a Movie Of The Week projected onto the bigscreen.
The synopsis is pretty generic, because the film isn’t much better, though the idea is not a bad one. It’s just the execution is largely flat and uninspiring (though Christian McKay as Welles is not bad).
In a whirlwind week in 1937 in New York City, a young aspiring actor named Richard is thrown into the middle of Orson Welles Mercury Theatre Company on the eve of the opening of Welles historic staging of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. During this week he will find romance with a worldly older woman, becomes immersed in a creative experience few are afforded and learn the downside of crossing the imperious, brilliant Welles. Richard is about to grow up fast.
The film has U.S. distribution, but it’s tiny and cobbled together by disparate sources — one of the same studio that put out “Delgo,” i.e. the film that had one of the worst box-office openings and overall performance ever. It will hit theaters November 25, but don’t be surprised if it’s a come-and-gone limited release that you’re barely aware of. Here’s to hoping Linklater has better luck with his next film, the rom-com called, “Liars (A-E),” starring Kat Dennings.