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October 27, 2008
Playing at a Theater Near You...
W.
The Gist: Oliver Stone presents his take on George W. Bush’s life, from W’s days in a fraternity at Yale to his numerous business failures to his presidential administration (which might be the grandest failure of them all). In a way, Bush never really excelled at anything post-college until he won the 1994 Texas gubernatorial race. (I think it was 1994; if it wasn’t, oh well; I’m too tired to do fact-checking right now, so just live with it.) The most interesting part of the movie, by far, in my humble opinion, is how Stone characterizes W’s relationship with his father (i.e. George Herbert Walker Bush, not with the Almighty Father). Let’s just say the son lets down the dad a lot. James Cromwell is absolutely great as George the Father. (He didn’t get the Senior Bush’s voice down, but otherwise nailed him! It might be his most impressive performance since he played Mr. Skolnick in Revenge of the Nerds, and anyone who has seen that movie, knows how great Cromwell was in it! “I wish I were going with you!”) Josh Brolin is terrific as W! Richard Dreyfuss and Scott Glenn excel as Cheney and Rumsfeld, and Elizabeth Banks plays a wonderful Laura Bush. (She and Brolin never got it on as Laura and W., which seemed a little unrealistic in my mind. I mean, hell, they have two daughters, and we saw them from their first encounter through their time in the White House. You would think Mr. Stone could have showed George giving a little lovin to Laura[’s] bush.)
What Would Have Made this Movie Better: The thing dragged at times. I can’t really point to any specific scenes I would have eliminated or altered; I just know I didn’t walk out thinking, “Wow, that was great!” I thought it was good. I thought it was entertaining. I loved Stone’s take on Bush’s relationship with his dad. But there was something that didn’t capture my attention the whole time. It felt long. Great movies don’t feel long. Oh, obviously seeing Elizabeth Banks get it on with W would have been nice. There were at least fifty places where this should have happened!
Who Should See This: If you are at all interested in the current president, you should give it a go. It’s worth seeing, just not more than once.
The Verdict: B
