Waltzing With Brando (2024) Movie Review.

I can’t vouch for the veracity of the “based-on-a-true-story” film Waltzing with Brando, but it is a lot of fun to watch everything unfold. I had never heard of this story before seeing the movie, and even though there were parts that felt condensed or contrived to fit a motion picture running time, there were always scenes that made me want to keep watching, low-key fascinating as it is.

Do you have to be a giant Marlon Brando fan to enjoy Waltzing? Probably not, but it kind of helps.

Waltzing With Brando opens sometime in the late 1960s. Marlon Brando (Billy Zane, almost unrecognizable) is one of the biggest movie stars and one of the most acclaimed actors in cinema working at the time. But you get the feeling he could care less about that. Mostly because he’s stated how he could care less about that and acting is just a means to and end. The end being making a lot of money.

Meanwhile, West Coast architect Bernard Judge has a family he loves, a job that he’s good at, and life is pretty decent even if things are feeling the same on a day to day basis. But Bernard gets a call from his boss Jack Bellin (Rob Corddry) about a very special job he’s to undertake for a very mysterious client. All he has to do is fly to Hawaii. Easy enough. What could go wrong?

As you’d expect, Bernard’s possible new client is none other than Marlon Brando. Even though acting is just a job to Brando, he’s very passionate about the environment and he’d like Bernie to build him a dwelling near Tahiti. An environmentally friendly retreat/hotel that seems to be Marlon Brando’s mission in life. But it’s going to cost money. Which means Marlon Brando will have to act again to raise the money. Could it be that simple?

Of course it’s not, and part of the fun is watching Bernard and Brando engage in this Oppenheimer-ish quest to do something that feels impossible and maybe crazy. Like I mentioned, I knew nothing about this story before and you’re constantly and pleasantly surprised.

• Quite possibly Billy Zane’s best onscreen performance as Marlon Brando. Zane has been an icon for so many years in such movies like Tales from the Crypt Demon Knight and The Phantom, you’d be hard pressed to remember when he’s been asked to stretch like this. Zane captures the essence of Brando without going into full-blown mimicry.
• The screenplay by director Bill Fishman and the late Bernard Judge throws a lot of information at you without resorting to dull exposition. Even if you’re kind of familiar with the basics of what happened, the details always manage to entertain.

• With a 104 minute running time. Waltzing does feel a little too long at times even if you’re never bored. There are scenes in retrospect that could and should have been cut as they feel repetitive and stall the narrative. A minor quibble in an otherwise entertaining movie.

The less you know about Waltzing With Brando, there more you should know about Waltzing with Brando. A crowd-pleasing diversion that shows a Hollywood icon in a new light. Take this Waltz.