Zac is back.
“Me and Orson Welles” stars Zac Efron as Richard Samuels, a high-school student who is bored with school and longs to be doing something more exciting than studying. A chance encounter with Orson Welles (Christian McKay) changes his outlook on things. Welles is casting for his latest project, an updated version of “Caesar” and Richard is given the role as Lucius. Richard is thrust into the “glamorous” world of show business, and he learns the ropes from Sonja Jones (Claire Danes), who works at the theatre where “Caesar” will be performed. Sonja will do anything to get ahead and this leads to disappointment for Richard, who after a night of passion with Sonja, thinks he is in love with her.
In this movie, Orson Welles is portrayed as a shady, womanizing, slightly crazy genius. Sometimes he was like-able, most times he was not. Efron did a good job in his role (as always). Supporting cast included Ben Chaplin, who had a few solid scenes as George Coulouris and who played Mark Antony in “Caesar” and Kelly Reilly as superficial “shine the light on my face this way, not that way” Muriel Brassler, who played Portia in “Caesar”.
I wasn’t sure who exactly the target audience for this movie was. We have Zac Efron, teen heartthrob, in a movie about a producer/actor from the 30’s. I’m not sure if this movie was geared towards the teenage girls, or the older crowd. I noticed that a lot of the older folks in the audience thought the movie was hilarious (maybe because they were around in the 30’s??).
