Waltzing with Brando

Films about celluloid icons during interesting or unusual periods in their personal and professional lives can make for great viewing. Of course, much depends on the quality, nature and depth of the source material for their stories. But, unfortunately, that’s where the latest offering from writer-director Bill Fishman – a comedic memoir about a legendary actor – comes up short. In the second half of the 20th Century, Marlon Brando (Billy Zane) captivated audiences with his performances in such films as “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951) and “On the Waterfront” (1954), and, by the 1970s, he had become a household name. However, the actor, known for his excesses and eccentricities, tired of the limelight and left Hollywood for life in Tahiti, where he was less conspicuous and had an opportunity to get back to nature, one of his lesser-known passions. He purchased a private though largely inaccessible atoll where he wanted to build an ecologically friendly retreat center. And, to design and construct the facility, Brando hired an idealistic, somewhat nerdy Los Angeles architect, Bernard Judge (Jon Heder), who was encouraged by friends and family to take the assignment as a means to come out of his shell and establish himself. What follows, then, is the wild and wacky story of how the project unfolded, a tale filled with a host of unconventional characters and circumstances. Regrettably, though, the picture suffers from a variety of execution problems. For instance, the storytelling approach is all over the map (not entirely unexpected for a director best known for making music videos), an issue clearly reflected in the scattered screenplay and narrative. Told primarily from Judge’s perspective – that of a character who is not particularly interesting to begin with – the production focuses more on him than the actor whose name appears in the movie’s title. Because the architect’s story is inherently rather thin, it feels disjointed, underdeveloped, padded and even goofy at times, incorporating irrelevant material, especially from Judge’s personal life. Brando, for his part, is relegated to an almost-secondary role, popping up occasionally to make enigmatic observations and engage in over-the-top acts of debauchery. In between, the picture presents somewhat cheesy re-creations of famous scenes from several of the movies the actor made to bankroll the project, including his Oscar-winning portrayal in “The Godfather” (1972) and his Oscar-nominated performance in “Last Tango on Paris” (1973), material that seems shamelessly self-indulgent in light of the subject matter. These scenes aside, however, Zane admittedly does his level best to make the most out of the material he has to work with here (which isn’t saying much), and his physical makeover for the role is truly noteworthy, to be sure. It’s also heartening to see Brando credited for his environmentalism efforts, something for which he has rarely received the accolades he deserved. But “Waltzing with Brando” offers so little else otherwise that it’s not worth the time. Watch one of his films, a Tahitian travelogue or an ecological documentary instead.