Me and Orson Welles (PG)

LOVELY Zac Efron. Look at him up there. Awww.

See the way he gazes into the distance, hair just so, jaw set firm, crystal-blue eyes dancing with the joy of life.

Makes you want to slap the handsome off his smug little face, dunnit?

Zac made his name, of course, in the High School Musical series, playing an all-singing, all-dancing high-school hunk on the basketball team.

And he was great at it. But two big questions remained. What on earth would he do next - and, more importantly, would he stink at it?

Then Zac made 17 Again, a film that stretched him all the way... to playing an all-singing, all-dancing high-school hunk on the basketball team. So the big questions are still a-lingerin'. But consider them now answered, people. Because Me And Orson Welles is Zaccharine's coming-of-age party.

And who's he playing? An all-singing, all- dancing high-school hunk... OK, OK, but this time it's different. Honest.

In a year of CGI, 3D and crash-zooms, Me And Orson Welles is a bizarre little one-off about a young wannabe actor in 1930s New York City.

It's shamelessly old-fashioned, hugely unfashionable and absolutely brilliant.

And it's hard to know who'll be most confused by it. The Bebo-brained Efron mob or fans of director Richard Linklater - who's famous for his experimental stuff that, by and large, DOESN'T involve sticking a Disney heartthrob into a chirpy drama set on Broadway. Zac plays 17-year-old Richard Samuels who (I swear he actually says this) has been in "mostly shows at school".

Seeking his fortune in the Big Apple, Rich meets legendary director Orson Welles (Christian McKay) and lands a small part in his production of Julius Caesar, where he falls for one of the cast members - the dazzling Sonja Jones (Claire Danes).

Linklater plays it as a coming-of-age tale but also as a love-letter to the theatre, and it works brilliantly on both counts.

But while Zac's the biggest name on the cast, it's Christian as Orson who makes the biggest impression.

I've never even heard of the guy before. Where's he been hiding? A cloning facility underneath Xanadu, would be a fair guess, because - truly - you might as well be watching the big man himself.

The guy's a humungous, fire-spitting, window-rattling pillock. He's also a bully but he's never a baddie - a genius balancing act that Christian pulls off perfectly.

Fact is, I'd back this Orse (Ithangyew) for a place on the best-supporting-actor- Oscar shortlist.

Delight

And in the face of such a top-quality performance, poor Zac just can't compete.

The little lamb DOES hold his own though, and a glowing cast - including top turns from Eddie Marsan, Kelly Reilly and Ben Chaplin - means there's not a weak link in the chain.

Also, full marks to everyone involved in rigging up the striking 30s New York setting. That's hard enough when you're filming in present-day NYC.

But the fact Linklater managed it while shooting on the Isle of Man and a couple of sound stages at Pinewood elevates it to ruddy witchcraft.

In a way, Me And Orson Welles is the perfect Christmas film - it's light, it's fun, it leaves you with a spring in your step, and Vince Vaughn is nowhere to be seen.

So catch this before the multiplexes get swamped with this year's serious big hitters - ie Sherlock and Avatar - and you'll see one of the most unexpected delights of 2009.

Congrats on this one, Zac. I'd happily watch you play an all-singing, all-dancing high-school hunk any time.

Which is just as well, cos at this rate, you'll be doing it till you're 50.

OUT FRIDAY

• Zac & Vanessa to wed
• High School Music-FALL.
• 17 Again (12A)

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