'The Disaster Artist' pulls off risky high wire act with grace

James Franco in The Disaster Artist

There was every reason to believe the new dramedy The Disaster Artist wouldn't be good -- and not just because it's about (in part) the making of one of the most infamously bad movies ever made.

Its writer-director-star James Franco is widely viewed as a flaky dilettante, rather than a skilled satirist. He bore no resemblance whatsoever to the iconic star of The Room he is playing -- Tommy Wiseau. And the whole phenomenon of The Room itself is so niche it was hard to believe a film could be made that could really capture what makes it so special to its 'fans.'

And yet, miraculously, James Franco proves all his detractors and skeptics (I count myself among them) wrong with this wonderfully entertaining, hilarious and surprisingly moving portrait of a one-of-a-kind aspiring filmmaker and actor, and the people who get caught up in his mad inspiration to make a semi-autobiographical drama in the Tennessee Williams vein.

Franco completely transforms himself physically to both resemble and sound exactly like Wiseau, and after the initial shock of his appearance and woozy, incoherent delivery he settles into one of the most oddly charismatic performances of his career.

He is totally liberated here in a way that he never is in his more bland leading man roles or even some of the wacky comedies he's appeared in. Not unlike his revelatory work in Spring Breakers, I think Franco is an actor who is best when he can totally immerse himself. He's always struck me as an actor in search of a persona, and here the material is just the perfect fit for his sensibilities and range.

The movie works because it's not interested in being a parody or a greatest hits reel of legendary problems with the making of The Room. The film gives you plenty of that movie's lowlights in spot-on recreations, but the meat of the movie is Wiseau's relationship with Greg Sestaro (who starred in The Room as Mark and wrote the book on which this movie is based) and their totally earnest ambitions to make it in Hollywood.

And this where the movie becomes great as opposed to just merely good. It walks this very risky tightrope where you watch characters who are making fools of themselves, making bad decisions and who are overestimating their talent but you still feel for them and root for them in spite of it.

Franco doesn't allow Wiseau to become some sort of lovable Forrest Gump character -- and in some riveting scenes he really leans into his megalomaniacal tendencies -- but you also walk away from the film marveling at this man's hubris and his ability to adapt to what life throws at him.

The portrayal of Sestaro is less convincing. Dave Franco can't help but be a better actor and more proactive than Sestaro appears to have been. And I would have liked to have seen more of Sestaro's clear self-serving ambition (he took the role of Mark partly as a lark but also because it was a lead role in a movie) instead of his blind, selfless loyalty.

Still, whether you've seen The Room or not, this film really hits home how hard it is to make a movie and what a wild, hopeful and risky swing-for-the-fences experience it can be. And you have to admire their hustle even if the results are disastrous.