"W." MAY sound like the story of the initial that rocked the world, but it turns out to be the tale of a mouse that roared. Director Oliver Stone and writer Stanley Weiser's unexpected take on the life and times of our 43rd president will surprise a lot of people, especially those not used to seeing the words "Oliver Stone" and "carefully modulated" in the same sentence."I'm sure they're lying," I offered, while agreeing to go. Reviewers would give good news on W. just because it's an anti-Bush film, wouldn't they?
Perhaps the crucial reason "W." succeeds as much as it does is the surprisingly empathetic work of Josh Brolin, the American actor of the moment, in the title role. Against considerable odds, his George Walker Bush is a sympathetic likeness of an apparently sincere individual, someone who seems to mean it when he says, "All I want to do is make it a better and safer world." Even if Stone had a more savage portrayal in mind, the quality of this performance won't allow it.This film is a live action cartoon. Brolin does an uncanny job of capturing the small things that convey the superficiality of who Bush is - the weird laugh, the smirk, the squint - but the film offers us nothing more than two dimensional imitation. We get to be with the characters, including Rumsfeld, Rice, Cheney and Rove, but we never get to know them, or learn anything new about them. And the whole premise of the movie is an unproven supposition - that Bush is haunted by the desire to please his father.
What makes Bush the way he is, "W." posits, is the drive of his life, the desire of the family black sheep to prove himself and get the approval and regard of his distant, patrician father, George H.W. Bush (James Cromwell), the picture of sobriety and rectitude who is forever saying to his son, "You disappoint me, Junior."We know nothing more about any of the characters at the end then we do at the beginning - they have not changed as a result of the story as there is no opportunity for transformation. It's a bit like watching the Three Stooges - no matter what happens in today's episode, they guys will be back next time in the same developmental place they were at the last time. They are consistent characters who are dropped into different situations, coming away unevolved and ready for the next caper. The president seems tired and frustrated by the failure of things to go the way he'd expected, but we are given no indication that he is changed, or that he might do things differently given another chance.
But the key bond in "W." is inevitably the one between the two presidents, father and son. It's the father who gets the lion's share of the good lines, at one point chiding his hard-partying son by saying, "Who do you think you are, a Kennedy?" Late in the film, the father even appears in the son's bad dream, telling him, "You've ruined it, the Bush name, it took 200 years to build and you ruined it."The movie seems eager to capitalize on a business opportunity rather than committed to delivering the goods. The world is very interested in W, so business is brisk, even if Oliver Stone doesn't deliver a very interesting film.
That's a sentiment that unnerves the president and marks "W." as a film not to be trifled with.It is entertaining to watch, though I found my focus waning from time to time, but is a bit like having rice cakes for dinner. After all that chewing, your stomach doesn't feel any more full.
What is surprising is that Stone allows Bush to emerge a sympathetic and likable guy - a man who, through no fault of his own, was born without the gifts required to carry the weight of the silver spoon.
