Stone Inaugurates His Version of W.
Oliver Stone has never been one for subtlety. He’s also never been one to pull his punches. His political epics J.F.K and Nixon had a decided point of view you couldn’t help but notice and, at least partially, admire. Heck, from Salvador to Platoon to Radio Days to Wall Street to The Doors to Born on the Fourth of July to World Trade Center, the Oscar-winning iconoclast has always had his own distinct way of telling a story, his thumbprints so noticeable they might as well painted in bright Technicolor neon.
Josh Brolin is George W. Bush and Tobey Jones is Karl Rove in Lionsgate's W.
So when it was reported that Stone was going to take on our sitting President George W. Bush with a biopic preconceptions of how he would represent the current Commander-in-Chief abounded. I mean, it’s not like the filmmaker’s opinion on the man was a thinly veiled secret (he’s given enough interviews labeling him an embarrassment that you’d think he was CNN political pundit), and any chance of some sort of even-handed portrait seemed like a virtual impossibility.
Now that that film, W., has seen its way into theaters, what’s surprising isn’t that Stone broke those preconceptions and actually tried for at least a modicum of impartiality, it’s that the film is so rudimentary and by the numbers it is, for at least a large portion of its running time, boring. In all honesty, I don’t think that’s an accusation I’ve ever leveled against the director, and even when his pictures wallow in mediocrity like Alexander or Heaven and Earth the man’s kinetic point-of-view is still so overpowering turning away in disgust is never an option.
At the same time, this movie does the one thing I never thought possible in regards to Bush, Jr., and that’s humanize the man to a point I almost (emphasis on the ‘almost’) never thought possible. Stone transforms arguably the worst President in the history of the United States into a sad Daddy’s Boy desperately trying to rise out of his Father’s shadow. I can’t say I buy the thesis completely, too many of the man’s policies and decisions too heinous to be given such an easy out, but I do appreciate the attempt, the emotional undercurrents of his rise and (probably) fall ones audiences can’t help but relate in at least some small measure to.
Also working in the director’s favor is that he scored a major coup in landing Josh Brolin in the title role. For all the film’s meanderings and flaccid fly-on-the-wall observations, the No Country for Old Men and American Gangster scene-stealer owns both this movie and this character like no one else. This isn’t some SNL style impersonation, Brolin instead diving headfirst into the very fiber of Bush’s being bringing every tooth, nail and hair follicle to life in a way I’d never dreamt possible.
The thing is, as good as he is and as much as I liked individual scenes (there’s a corker of a bit in the war room where the cabinet discusses the value of attacking Iraq and Dick Cheney – icily impersonated by Richard Dreyfuss – spells out all the administration’s oily machinations, especially towards Iran), overall I just couldn’t help but feel like there just wasn’t any there, there. Stanley Weiser’s (Wall Street) script hits most of the right notes, it just doesn’t do so in a way that’s all that interesting. The whole thing played like potatoes without the meat, syrup without the pancake, and for the majority of the running time I was interested without ever being awed.
I’m not really sure what Stone could have done differently. For the most part he’s cast magnificently (Thandie Newton disappears so far into Condoleeza Rice she’s absolutely unrecognizable, while Jeffrey Wright is heartbreakingly pitiable as Colin Powell), while the film itself has an All the President’s Men-like verisimilitude that’s certainly impressive. It just doesn’t have all that much to say, and considering the voluminous amounts of material the real George W. Bush has given us for commentary this fact comes as something of a minor shock.
In the end, I’m probably being a bit hard on the guy (Stone, not Bush). The acting, especially by Brolin, seriously is fantastic, while a final dinner table scene with all the primary players after Iraq hasn’t played out as expected certainly helps sends things out on a deliriously satisfying high note. But I wanted more and the film refused to give it to me, and while I’d never broach the subject of box office impeachment a Drama 101 recount investigating the script's assembly into a feature might certainly be in order.
Film Rating: êê1/2 (out of 4)
Additonal Links:
- W. Theatrical Trailer
