"W" Is For Well-Done

Saw "W" last night-- and it was not what I expected. Revved up for a dose of revisionist Oliver Stone muckraking, I was surprised by a piece of relatively earnest portrayal of King George and what makes him tick.

The movie didn't make any attempt to be strictly autobiographical or even fully document recent political events (although the audience does get a few fascinating scenes of W's cabinet in the lead-up to the Iraq war and post-mortem of the WMD fiasco). Instead, the film was very much in the style of Jacob Weisberg's book, "The Bush Tragedy"-- attempting to show how various episodes in his life, as well as family dynamics (especially his relationship with his father) shaped his personality and decision-making later in life.

After years of striving for his father's attention and approval, he finally finds a surrogate in Dick Cheney-- to devastating results. In a similar fashion, W's partnership with Karl Rove is a substitute for a brotherly relationship he never had with Jeb-- accepting personal criticism from him that he never did from his own father. In the end, as W has climbed the proverbial mountain of success he cannot revel in any respect or admiration from his father-- he is only tortured by the stain he has brought on his family name.

Josh Brolin is spot-on as W, and Richard Dreyfuss scores as Cheney. Most of the cast does quite well-- avoiding caricature while nailing down the essence of their characters in the brief moments in and out of the film. The only false note was from Thandie Newton as Condi Rice. She seemed to be playing her role for strict farce, with her Rice coming off like a complete and utter toadie. Perhaps the script is to blame-- she was never given any meaningful dialogue or portrayed has having any meaningful role among the Bush inner circle. In Oliver Stone's version of Bush world, it was definitely a man's game (even W's mom-- as played by Ellen Burstyn-- comes off as more manly than Bush Sr.) Rice was continually portrayed as a spineless "yes" woman-- which, after the third or fourth time, could only provoke laughter from the audience.

I'm sure that the movie will disappoint many critics-- who, in the current political climate, will undoubtedly be hoping for a hatchet job. Even the timing of the film's release may perhaps be judged to be a detriment-- coming too late in the game as insight on the Iraq war, and too early as a coda on his presidency. Nevertheless, it's fascinating stuff and yet another brilliant performance by the underrated Josh Brolin.