The shortlist for Makeup and Hairstyling for the 97th Academy Awards included this film, written and directed by Bill Fishman, who mostly works as a music video director. It wasn't nominated at the Oscars this year, but, when it made the shortlist, many remarked at how the makeup and hairstyling for the actor here was remarkable and uncanny. Billy Zane (Titanic and Dead Calm) stars as Marlon Brando, the iconic and legendary actor. For those who saw the film when the shortlist was released, all agreed that the work to make Zane look like Brando was absolutely perfect. In this story, we see scenes that re-create famous moments from Brando's films, including The Godfather (1972) and Last Tango in Paris (1973). The re-creations here are virtually indistinguishable from the real footage. Fishman's production could honestly be confused for documentary footage. It's that convincing and that well-done. Zane could be accused of looking like Brando naturally without much makeup and hairstyling work, but whatever the makeup and hair department did only made things that much more flawless.
Nearly 60 years ago, the real-life Brando purchased the island of Tetiaroa, a small piece of land that's part of an atoll in Tahiti, the chain of islands in French Polynesia, which is about 2,000 miles south of Hawaii. It's in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Brando fell in love there with a French Polynesian woman and even had a daughter with that woman who was also born in Tahiti in 1970. Around that same time, Brando decided to build a home there in order to be closer to his child's culture and also as an escape from the Hollywood life that he rejected. Because Brando had become an environmentalist and out of respect of native or indigenous cultures, he hired an architect to build a home and eventual resort that would follow certain environmental and cultural guidelines.
Jon Heder (Blades of Glory and Napoleon Dynamite) co-stars as Bernard Judge aka "Bernie," the aforementioned architect whom Brando hired. The real-life Bernard Judge wrote the book on which this film is based. Bernie lives in Los Angeles. He's married with a teen daughter named Sabrina. He's not the average architect. He likes to create and build experimental things. He's particularly interested in domes, but he definitely likes a challenge and wants to do something different. He first meets Marlon Brando while scouting locations for a hotel in Tahiti by another developer. It could be argued that Bernie is entranced with Marlon's movie star status, even though Marlon downplays and purposefully eschews his celebrity. However, when Marlon suggests building a home on Tetiaroa, which is a logistical nightmare and seems virtually impossible, Bernie can't help but become fascinated and possibly obsessed with accomplishing the task.
At first, I thought this film might be like Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo (1982), a story about a man or men attempting to do a very difficult, if seemingly impossible feat. In that film, it's a guy trying to move a steamship across the mountains. Here, it's trying to build a resort on an island that's surrounded by sharp coral that makes boats sailing there very difficult. At one point, I thought this film would be about those difficulties and those travails. Fishman's narrative feels like it's going to be a step-by-step process, as we watch how Bernie and Marlon pull off this unlikely-to-succeed task. The film is that process, but through the use of voice-over narration or a trick from The Big Short (2015) where characters break the fourth wall and explain things directly to the camera, explaining things like the "Ghyben-Herzberg lens," the dramatic stakes and tension of whether or not Bernard will figure out how to accomplish his goal are rather removed or flattened.
The film then seems as though it will be less about the process and more about the dynamic between Bernie and Marlon. The aging movie star has this quixotic dream and gives Bernie the unrealistic job of making that dream come true, even though Bernie doesn't have the money or the resources. Marlon simply keeps pushing Bernie and pushing him. Because Bernie doesn't want to let Marlon down, he becomes obsessed with doing the job no matter what. This obsession comes at a personal cost, as it begins to interfere with his relationship with his wife, Dana, played by Alaina Huffman (Stargate Universe and Smallville). Yet, that aspect isn't as underlined as much as it could have been and perhaps should have been. Out of nowhere, it seems as if Bernie and Dana are having marital issues and the film could have built that up more.
Fishman's film is funny. It definitely plays more as a comedy. As such, one could think of this film as the more humorous version of Brady Corbet's The Brutalist (2024), another film that competed at the 97th Academy Awards, which also centers on an architect working for a very wealthy man, trying to build something quixotic while facing difficulties with design and construction. Fishman's work here and Corbet's piece could have been twin films to some degree. However, for the most part, Bernie and Marlon feel like everything is fine in their relationship until suddenly they're not and the two have a fight or falling out that again feels like it comes out of nowhere. In The Brutalist, the tensions between the two main characters feel organic and bubble to a boiling point. That's not really the case here.
Fishman's film then tries to end with some hagiography for Brando. However, the film does something, which might have been contradictory to who Brando was. Famously, Brando rejected his Oscar for The Godfather because of Hollywood and the U.S.'s treatment of Native Americans or indigenous people. Yet, this film equally disregards a lot of the indigenous people of Tahiti. There are plenty of workers from Tahiti who help to build and develop Tetiaroa but the film only gives them short shrift. The film introduces Madame Leroy, played by Tia Carrere (True Lies and Wayne's World), and I thought that the film would give her more to do, but she only gets one comedic scene where she plays a horny widower.
If we got any insight into any of the Tahiti people, one would think it would be Tarita Teriipaia, the wife of Marlon Brando at the time, as well as the mother of two of his children. We see her second child and daughter born in the film, but she's mostly overlooked in this narrative. It's again endemic of how the film treats all of the Tahiti people, which again is antithetical to who Marlon Brando was. Brando got to know these people, particularly his wife. This film should have gotten us to know them or at least her too. Instead, the film is about Bernie's obsession to do this job, which is perfectly fine. Yet, the film doesn't really do much to make us feel the stakes, such that they are.
Not Rated but contains language and nudity, especially a lot of Billy Zane's butt.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 44 mins.
In select theaters.
Available on home video on Nov. 4.