Review of W. (2008) by Smelly W — 21 May 2011

The weakest of Stone's presidential movies but still pretty good although overlong and not so strongly focused. G.W. Bush is certainly among the most polarizing presidents the country has ever known.

And what if he was/is just a true-believing, Texas bumpkin, high stakes gambler and occasional doofus? Stone gives us a fairly good portrait I think and at least it's fair. Josh Brolin is really a wonderful actor and his level of commitment is unsurpassed.

He really got ol' W good right down to his tongue-tied, word fumbling vacuousness. The rest of the cast is okay with James Cromwell, Richard Dreyfuss and Jeffrey Wright standing out. It's all yesterday's news and may bore the crap out of most movie-goers but I enjoyed it and thought it sized up W's career pretty decently.

I think what it really could have used was at least one good scene dealing with the immediate aftermath of 911 because that was really a turning point in Bush's presidency for obvious reasons, but maybe Stone had his own reasons for glossing completely over that fateful day.