Disclosed herein is a multilayer film comprising two or more layers of polyelectrolytes, wherein adjacent layers comprise oppositely charged polyelectrolytes. A first layer polyelectrolye comprises a composite polypeptide comprising one or more surface adsorption regions covalently linked to one or more functional regions forming a single polypeptide chain. The surface adsorption regions comprise one or more amino acid sequence motifs consisting of 5 to 15 amino acid residues. The one or more functional regions comprise 3 to about 250 amino acid residues.