W: Aiming to Please
A life misunderestimated.
When my brother and I sat down to watch this film in a theater on 42nd Street in New York, there was a couple of guys next to us who laughed out loud whenever Josh Brolin in the guise of George W. Bush did something silly. They obviously belonged to the crowd who wanted to see this film to have their perception of Bush as an idiot confirmed. As the film progressed, they became a bit quieter. There’s plenty of moments in W. where Bush is a bumbling fool… but this is also in many ways a gentle portrait of a simple man who unbelievably enough became the leader of the free world.
The movie jumps back and forth between the President’s preparations for going to war with Iraq and those times in the ’70s and ’80s when he partied too much, fought with his dad and eventually found Jesus. George W. Bush (Brolin) grows up as a privileged man. He’s given every opportunity to make something out of his life, but keeps bungling; alcohol is one reason why he can’t straighten out. Meanwhile, his brother Jeb is the golden boy of the Bush family; it’s obvious that the patriarch, George (James Cromwell), has high hopes for Jeb and is sorely disappointed in W. However, things change when W. falls in love with a liberal librarian, Laura (Elizabeth Banks), decides to quit drinking, becomes a baseball manager and eventually runs for governor of Texas in 1994. It is typical how his parents still think that he should wait because Jeb is running for governor in Florida the same year… but W. goes ahead anyway, wins and is elected president in 2000, not least thanks to his ruthless but cunning adviser Karl Rove (Toby Jones). At least for a while, George W. Bush gets to enjoy the feeling of having outdone his brother and impressed his father… but in the end, his presidency is in shambles.
It’s a great story, huh? Too bad that Mr. Stone and his Wall Street (1987) co-writer, Stanley Weiser, are unable to make this movie work better. Several ingredients are good. Mr. Brolin is excellent as Bush, capturing the goofiness and determination of the President. Mr. Cromwell matches him; he doesn’t look anything like Bush the elder, but his natural authority is a good replacement. Interesting to note that Bush seems driven by a desire to impress men he admires, starting with his father, moving on to Rove, to Dick Cheney. Director Stone creates sympathy for his protagonist in the early days, and those scenes are better than those in the White House that resemble a parody. Mr. Dreyfuss is so cold and evil as the Vice President that he is hard to believe in, Thandie Newton is too obviously creating an (unimpressive) caricature of Condoleezza Rice… and Ms. Banks doesn’t age convincingly. Besides, we never learn exactly how the liberal younger Laura became a person who can politically support her husband’s administration. Well, love is a blinding force.
The mystery here is that the American people decided to vote for this man, the fortunate, clueless son of an ex-president, instead of experienced, intelligent statesmen. Not once, but twice. Watching this doofus going to Washington, Mr. Stone was equally mystified.
W. 2008-U.S. 130 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Oliver Stone. Screenplay: Stanley Weiser. Cast: Josh Brolin (George W. Bush), Elizabeth Banks (Laura Bush), James Cromwell (George H.W. Bush), Ellen Burstyn, Richard Dreyfuss, Jeffrey Wright… Toby Jones, Thandie Newton, Scott Glenn, Ioan Gruffudd, Noah Wyle, Stacy Keach, Colin Hanks.
Trivia: Christian Bale was allegedly considered for the part of Bush; Harrison Ford and Warren Beatty for his father; and Robert Duvall for Cheney.
Quote: “Who do you think you are… a Kennedy? You’re a Bush. Act like one.” (Mr. Cromwell to Mr. Brolin)
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