Waltzing with Brando
Waltzing with Brando
The story of how Marlon Brando plucked Bernard Judge, an obscure but idealistic Los Angeles architect from his stable existence and convinced him that he should build the world’s first ecologically perfect retreat on a tiny and uninhabitable Tahitian island.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 1, 2025
Waltzing with Brando is most memorable not for its story, but for the uncanny transformation of Billy Zane into the iconic Marlon Brando. Thanks to the remarkable work of makeup artist Hannah Schenck and her team, the illusion is astonishing—from facial structure to vocal cadence, from posture to pathos. There are stretches where Zane is so eerily convincing that it's hard not to do a double take. He embodies Brando’s theatrical contradictions: the majestic and the mundane, the godlike magnetism and the deep insecurity. It’s the kind of performance that I would think would be a shoo-in for awards consideration if not for the film around it.
Bill Fishman’s adaptation of Bernard Judge’s memoir about being hired to build an eco-resort on Brando’s Tahitian island takes place during the stretch in which Brando filmed The Godfather, Last Tango in Paris, and Apocalypse Now, three defining performances of his career. It’s an incredibly interesting period on which to center a film. Yet, it feels kind of wasted. We get an albeit really impressive montage recreation of some of the aforementioned films iconic moments, but rather exploring the stories behind the making of those films, it clings to the perspective of Bernard Judge (Jon Heder), who functions less as a dramatic counterweight and more as an inert narrative vessel—outside the rote fish out of water storyline. The result leaves a curious emotional void at the film’s center: is this an unlikely bromance, or a one-sided exploitation dressed up as communion? The film hedges until it’s too late to matter, leaving the central conceit of the film thoroughly undercooked.
There are small pleasures along the way such as the aforementioned montage. I particularly loved seeing Tia Carrere again in a really fun cameo. Richard Dreyfuss on the other hand seemed to be working in a different film entirely.
For a film about a man obsessed with control—over his island, his image, his legacy—Waltzing with Brando feels oddly shapeless. It’s not the definitive Brando biopic, but in Zane’s performance, and the transformative make-up, we see the fleeting potential of what could have been.