Movie Review - W.

Oliver Stone continues his political biopic tradition with "W.", a surprisingly even handed presentation of the life and times of George W. Bush featuring a bravura performance by Josh Brolin in the title role and Stone's biting commentary about our current president. It must have been tempting for Stone to merely poke fun at our easily spoofed leader, but he takes the more complicated, and ultimately effective, path of dissecting the life of a good ole Texas boy who became one of the most powerful people in the world with disastrous consequences for all. We pick up the W. story with his early days at Yale where his hard drinking, mediocre academic results and responsibility shirking ways put him into increasing conflict with his father. W. hops from one job to another, racks up a DUI arrest, impreganates his girlfriend while his father manages to take care of the multiple screw-ups. There's minimal coverage of W.'s marriage to Laura and his election to Governor of Texas with a little more screen time devoted to his recovery from alcoholism as a born again Christian.

An excellent cast (James Cromwell as the senior Bush, Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell, Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice, Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush, Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney, Scott Glenn as Donald Rumsfeld) offers completely believable characterizations of these well known individuals that go beyond mere imitation. There's excellent use of music with such songs as "The Yellow Rose of Texas" and "What a Wonderful World" highlighting scenes of destruction and the especially appropriate Bob Dylan song "With God On Our Side" playing over the ending credits. The movie goes on a little too long and doesn't really catch fire like some of Stone's movies can do, but there's much to admire about this attempt to capture a man who is ultimately unfathomable.

Things to love about this movie: Josh Brolin's amazing portrayal of W.; a horrifying strategy session on the invasion of Iraq that conjures images of "Dr. Strangelove"
Things to hate about this movie: Stone over uses the baseball metaphor for W.'s longing to be admired and applauded as well as over emphasizing W.'s conflicts with his father
Pleasant surprises: The humor in the movie was of a deeper, angrier sort than the trailer led me to assume; not nearly as bombastic as some of Stone's other movies
Unpleasant surprises: Not much new material surfaces; Stone cuts W. a little too much slack for my taste