There have been quite a few films over the years that have featured a celebrity in the title of a movie, but said film isn’t necessarily a biopic as such. Waltzing With Brando is one of those types of movies. My Week With Marilyn, and Me and Orson Welles are a couple of examples of this. Even though they aren’t biopics, they have quite a few scenes with their respective celebrities in them. Brando is featured a lot in this movie. Fans of his like myself will be happy to see some famous sequences that pop up throughout the film. Mostly, his work from the 70s.

Bernard “Bernie Judge” (Jon Heder) is a family man and an architect in the 1960s he has been tasked by his boss Jack Bellin (Rob Corddry) to scope out an exotic island in the Caribbean, which is part of the French Polynesian Islands Tahiti. He reluctantly agrees to go, but when he gets there, he starts to understand why his boss wants to build a resort there. After he settles in, he notices an isolated Atoll that he wants to explore. He commissions a boat to take him out there. After a dangerous swim through coral filled waters, he gets to the other side covered in cuts. He finally finds a house on the island and starts to ask about the owner. It turns out the owner of the island and sole occupant is none other than Marlon Brando (Billy Zane). This is a shock to this man who has been through quite an ordeal to finally get to this man.

Last year, this film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Make Up and Hairstyling. Which shocked all of the awards pundits because most hadn’t heard of it before. It had a qualifying run at the Palm Springs Film Festival, which made it eligible for the Oscars last year. It’s finally coming out now, and fans will finally get to see all the excitement around the makeup and hairstyling. It was worth the wait because Billy Zane is unrecognizable as Marlon Brando. He is even giving off facial ticks and a voice that sounds like Brando. That’s how much Zane is invested in this role. I like that kind of dedication from an actor.

This film is about more than the relationship between these two people. It’s about building a sustainable resort in a beautiful location for people to come and enjoy their vacations with families and / or friends.The problem is there is quite a lot that had to go into building this place. It wasn’t cheap either. Raising the funds was just as complicated as building the hotel and bungalows. Brando had to go back to work to help pay for everything. He even chose not to get paid in the normal way actors get paid he deferred his payments to after the film was made. Which turned out to be a very lucrative deal on his part.

Zane, as Brando, ended up taking some pretty amazing roles in films such as The Godfather, Last Tango In Paris Apocalypse Now, and Superman The Movie. Even as this character from his famous movies, Zane was uncanny as Brando. He’s played various different kinds of characters in his career, such as Kit Walker aka The Phantom, Caledon Hockley in Titanic and Hughie Warriner in Dead Calm, but his role of Marlon Brando is the best performance of his career. He got everything about  Brando down Pat. His voice included. There was more to the performance than just how he looked and sounded. Learning about who he was and what he stood for was a key to his performance. His philanthropic endeavors and political beliefs were a big part of this story. Especially when it came to the decisions that were made involving the resort.

One of the best parts of the movie is its cinematography.  The setting of Tahiti is absolutely gorgeous. The crystal blue waters, the gold sand beaches, and the lush green jungles were all filmed exceptionally well. The location is a big party of any film these days and this one was perfect. A scene where the two main characters were swimming in the ocean naked even showed wildlife. A scene involving a shark swimming around in the ocean was beautifully shot. Even a gag scene of a plane almost landing on the airstrip that was too small was realized with a professional eye. It was like that out of a big action film. I loved the way this film looked from beginning to end.

Besides Heder and Zane, there was a pretty good cast. Richard Dreyfuss played Brando’s lawyer and financial advisor.  He was better than he’s been in quite a while. Michelle (Camille Razat) is a flight attendant who befriends Heder’s character. She is quite a seductress. Zeke Knight (James Jagger) is a banker, and he became friends with the Heder character. He gives him more leeway than he otherwise would have gotten with someone else in a similar situation. Even Tia Carrere has a funny role involving a prank. There were a lot of pranks in this story. Sofia Masson and Alaina Huffman also have supporting roles in the film. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the cast of this movie. Heder especially was a pleasant surprise. He was much better than I’ve seen him in years. 

Waltzing With Brando is a better film than it had any reason to be. It didn’t try to take itself too seriously, either. The performances from Heder and Zane are both terrific. Heder was much better than he’s been in years. Zane, on the other hand, might have given the best performance of his career as this legendary two-time academy award winning actor Marlon Brsndo. As a fan of Brando, this was like a walk down memory lane for me. He is one of my favorite actors of all time. The cinematography is incredible. This is an absolutely beautiful film no matter how you look at it. Bill Fishman wrote/directed this film based on the book by Heder’s character Bernard Judge. He didn’t try to do anything too impressive with the story or the film. That worked well for this story. It is a film about a friendship that nobody knew about except those involved. That’s why these types of stories are so important. I really enjoyed this movie for all the reasons I mentioned, but specifically for the incredible performance from Zane.

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen