Monday, December 15, 2008

It's all about strategery: "W."

So My Forever Luminescence and I stole away to see this movie one recent Saturday. Had some free passes to Ye Olde Moviehouse, and since both of us are big old welfare queen-enabling liberals ... heck yeah we wanted to see if Oliver Stone savaged the prez in the same way he did the NFL!

Verdict: entertaining, but nothing life-altering here.

As we all know, Stone took on the unorthodox task of doing a movie about a sitting president that wasn't a documentary. Nope ... it's all Stone doing his Stone thing. In this case, we jump back and forth in time, with scenes from George W. Bush the formative years in Texas mixed with Bush dealing with the aftermath of 9/11. Talk about two different sets of circumstances. To say nothing of the stakes ...

Our cast is impressive. Josh Brolin as W, and Elizabeth "I'm in EVERYTHING these days" Banks as Laura Bush. Ellen Burstyn as Babs. James Cromwell as Poppy. Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney. Scott Glenn as Rummy. Thandie Newton as Condi. Toby Jones as Karl Rove. Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell. And many others, including Bruce McGill, a personal fave, as CIA director George Tenet. So plenty of bonafide actors here.

And for the most part, they fill their parts well -- some better than others. Dreyfuss is definitely the best. He really becomes Cheney, thanks to the physical resemblance, and it's damn spooky. Wright and Newton are pretty good, too, with Newton especially having the Condi style -- not so much the speech -- down. Glenn, Burstyn, Banks and Cromwell don't look as much like their characters, but they're pros, so no harm done.

Of course, what we all want to know is if Brolin delivered the goods (with Stone's help). I'd say 75% yes. The physical resemblance isn't great. I mean, he's better looking than Bush, and putting a gray wig on him and having him ape the prez doesn't obscure that. But he gives it a good go, and there were times when the performance went beyond parody to really channeling the guy. One example that comes to mind is him trying to dress down Cheny -- whom he calls "Vice," which is hilarious -- after group meetings. I can totally see that happening in Bush's first term, as he tries to wrap his head around all this Al Qaeda-Iraq-thingamajig.

In the end, "W." was interesting enough but not shocking or thought-provoking. Yes, it was nice to see how young George's life and missteps helped shaped the man he is -- and isn't -- today. But I wasn't surprised by any of it, and it all kind of just made me sad. And maybe wondering when change would come to America ...

3 Comments:

At 11:33 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This film was "Nixon: Redux". Instead of mommy issues, daddy issues were in place and forefront. I don't think the film tore the man down, there were just jabs at him. Cheney was pretty good but the better was the way he accurately portrayed Rove as a weasel. Lurking in the background and stepping up to whisper in W's ear. A true Wormwood/Rasputin like character. Though, I wish Stone would have focused a little more attention to his Texas days with the Rangers and Ann Richardson race.

 
At 10:51 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jeff, Thandie Newton was bad to the point of distraction. Were we watching the same movie? The guy playing Rove was very good though.

The Count

 
At 12:03 AM, Blogger Jefferson said...

Newton had the look down, but yeah, when she talked more in the second half, it was a little harder to swallow. Still, the resemblance was there.

 

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