Me and Orson Welles

The spot-on impersonation of the larger-than-life Welles is here. So are the 1937 period sets, costumes and hair and make-up. The music is authentic, too.

Pity no one thought to write a good story.

Me and Orson Welles takes place during one week of 17-year-old Richard's (Zac Efron) life, and, by the end of it, I felt I had been sitting in the theater for that full week. Efron does what he's called upon to do -- appear starstruck by Welles, who has hired him to play a small role in his production of Julius Caesar.

Welles is a tyrant, but after, oh, about his sixth rant at his theater company, it gets a bit tiresome. Since the story of this play rehearsal may have seemed -- correctly -- a mite thin for a feature film, the writer tossed in a little romance. Claire Danes plays the love interest (though she's not all that interesting) of Welles, Richard and several other men.

At one point, Welles reads a newspaper review of a preview of his play. He scoffs at the critic who writes that the play is a "considerable trial of the audience's patience and good will." The same can be said of the movie. Skip it.