‘W.’ focuses on Bush’s past, administraton
By Manny Casillas | Editorial Assistant
When you mix incendiary director Oliver Stone with one of the most unpopular presidents in history, you’d expect the fireworks to fly fast and furious.
Not quite. Stone’s “W.,” his third film concerning a president (following “J.F.K.” and “Nixon”) can’t quite decide whether to take George W. Bush to trial or give him a big hug.
“W.” does have some of the familiar Stone mischief that was absent from his last feature, the soft-around-the-edges “World Trade Center.”
Working from a script from “Wall Street” screenwriter Stanley Weiser, “W.” parallels Bush Jr.’s wild college years with his current presidency.
The film was shot quickly so it could be released in time for the election, as if to have us take stock of what this president has done to us as a country.
Josh Brolin (“No Country For Old Men”) stars as the commander-in-chief himself, and he’s electrifying.
His every gesture, word and moves holds not an ounce of condescension.
Bush is an easy target, no doubt about it, but Brolin brings out the humanity in the man, or at least as much as Stone allows.
With Brolin’s Bush we see the charmer who swept former Democrat and Lyndon B. Johnson supporter, Laura Bush, off her feet. Elizabeth Banks is sweet in the role, showcasing a loyal spouse no matter what her husband does.
Then we see the massive screw-up son of privilege at war with his Congressman father, George H.W. Bush, portrayed by James Cromwell, who brings grit and grace to the role.
From there the film goes back and forth showing us Bush the baseball fan, the boozer, the born-again Christian and finally the president.
Then there are the actors making up the administration. The scenes of the cabinet holding meetings borders on “Saturday Night Live” parody.
The most obvious is Thandie Newton as Condoleeza Rice, all buried in make-up.
Richard Dreyfuss is spot on as Vice President Cheney, arms folded and all, and Toby Jones hints strongly at the black heart lurking within Karl Rove.
Stone never allows them to be anything more than caricature. As a result the scenes that show the lead-up to the Iraq War actually slow the movie down.
It’s everything we see in Bush’s younger years that is most effective, especially in Bush’s interactions with his father.
Brolin and Cromwell are dynamite, and Ellen Burstyn springs a fierce turn as Barbara Bush, yet she’s stupidly kept to the sidelines.
The scene in which a drunken Bush challenges his father to a fist-fight is one moment where things definitely feel real, whether it really occurred or not.
As his presidency draws to a close, Bush does need to be taken to task for his administration, but you won’t get it in Stone’s film. (Leave that kind of presidential skewering instead to Ron Howard’s upcoming “Frost/Nixon.”)
What Stone’s film ultimately comes down to is a man striving for his father’s approval, as evident in a wonderfully surreal scene in which Bush Sr. begins trading punches with his son in the oval office.
The Stone we know as director of “Platoon,” “Wall Street,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “J.F.K.” and “Nixon.” That’s not what we saw in “W.”
Instead we just get a mess of a movie, but a fascinating one.
