Based on true events, Waltzing with Brando tells the story of young architect Bernard Judge’s (John Heder, Napoleon Dynamite) relationship with the iconic star, as he tries to build his own paradise on an atoll in Tahiti. Billy Zane (Titanic, Dead Calm) really morphs into Brando, and at times you can’t tell if it is Zane or old footage of Brando himself. His Brando is funny and warm and confounding, but also an environmentalist and civil rights activist.
The time frame that the film spans are the years that Brando was working on The Godfather and Last Tango in Paris. He’d been living in Tahiti for a while, when Judge is sent to the island to find a site for a developer’s hotel. After his plan for a particularly beautiful piece of ocean front falls through, Judge goes looking for another parcel, and finds the perfect spot. And when he is directed to the owner’s house, it turns out it belongs to Marlon himself. And so begins a relationship that would last the rest of their lives.
The land that belongs to Brando is a gorgeous island that is hard to get to because of a treacherous reef. But it works, though the project eventually falls through. But then Brando has his own plan to design an ecologically self-sustaining retreat on a his little slice of paradise.
Throughout the process, Brando’s accountant Seymour Kraft (Richard Dreyfuss) tries from afar to keep the project from spiraling out of control. And it is a bigger task than any of them expect, so they soon run low on funding, causing Brando to begrudgingly accept a role in what he refers to as the “gangster movie,” or as we know it The Godfather.
Far from a biopic, the film is a slice of Brando’s life, away from the Hollywood celebrity setting he shunned. His life in Tahiti was his escape, though he wanted to show the world how development could be done in a more ecologically appropriate way, with solar panels and distilled drinking water. And in Judge he found a partner who was willing to try, and to spend years on a nearly impossible project.
The film is from Judge’s perspective, based on his book “Waltzing with Brando: Planning a Paradise in Tahiti,“ and at times there is narration that doesn’t really feel like it adds much to the film. Sadly, John Heder isn’t particularly memorable as Judge, but the film is nonetheless very entertaining because of Zane’s zany Brando. It’s most alive when he’s at the center. And it is his performance that makes it worth seeing.
Opening Sept 19th in limited release.