Review of W. (2008) by Dylan 1 — 28 Jul 2009

An uneven and frustrating film. The film both sympathizes with, and insults George "W." Bush. The flashbacks are without a doubt the strongest parts of the film and make you wonder why they even bothered with the 'present day' (for the film's timeline) scenes leading up to the Iraq War.

In the flashbacks the film though with a sense of humor, portrays Bush warts and all. His reckless and immature behaviour, his drinking habits, but a man living in the shadow of his father and constantly struggling to live above that.

To be more than just another 'Bush', to be a great man on his own and seen as that not because of his family. We see a man grow past his inner demons and drawbacks. But whenever we cut to the 'present day' storyline Bush is instead a wisecracking and rather idiotic person.

It completely goes against everything that the flashbacks were establishing. Instead he's someone who listens to whatever Condoleezza Rice and Dick Cheney think while they sit comfortably with their noses in his butthole while they use him to get what they want.

If the film was trying to say Bush was influenced by these people, then they completely ruined that by making Bush look like an idiot (whatever feelings you have on Bush aside) who didn't even look at the situation reasonably and thought only about public image and what new wisecrack he has to say.

For a film with such a great lead performance that if the rest of the film had only been as good, it deserved to have stronger material with the characters and the messiness and contradictions of the story structure.