MORE of a hastily executed charcoal sketch than a portrait, Oliver Stone’s “W.” is nonetheless an often compelling, tragicomic psychological analysis of Dubya, viewed through the prism of his relationship with an allegedly disapproving father.
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Josh Brolin is superb as George W. Bush, who, while not treated entirely sympathetically, is perhaps surprisingly not entirely evil in the view of Stone and screenwriter Stanley Weiser.
They see him as a belligerent, none-too-bright scion whose advisers prey on his insecurity to manipulate him into a full-blown Middle East war that the patrician George H.W. Bush (a terrific James Cromwell) earlier resists on the grounds it would turn into “another Vietnam.”
The current President Bush’s dwindling fan base will disagree with this thesis, which has been advanced in several biographies consulted by the filmmakers.
But for others, it makes for a satisfying dramatic arc. Stone begins with Dubya’s less-than-distinguished days as a third-generation legacy at Yale (they were briefly classmates), followed by his aimless, alcohol-soaked adulthood, his courtship of the ever-patient Laura (Elizabeth Banks) and his eventual embrace of sobriety and Christianity.
It’s around this point that “Junior,” as “Poppy” calls him, enters politics, much against the wishes of H.W., who has risen to vice president and sees Dubya’s brother Jeb (who barely figures in the movie) as a more viable candidate to continue the family’s political dynasty.
Poppy asks Junior to help run his presidential campaign – but only after noting that Jeb was unavailable for the job.
Junior eventually returns this insult by grumbling his father is too weak to pursue the Gulf war to what he sees as its logical conclusion, the toppling of Saddam Hussein.
The younger Bush sees this – not the economy – as the reason Poppy’s re-election bid against Bill Clinton fails, and resolves to avenge his father’s honor when he’s elected to the presidency eight years later.
As Stone sees it, it’s this psychological conflict that renders Dubya vulnerable to Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss), Donald Rumsfeld (Scott Glenn) and Condi Rice (Thandie Newton) when they link Saddam to al Qaeda using what Colin Powell (Jeffrey Wright) keeps insisting is flimsy evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
An entire feature could – and probably will be – devoted to this episode, which receives relatively simplistic treatment here. In Stone’s view, Dubya’s chief enabler is Machiavellian political adviser Karl Rove (Toby Jones), who argues that stepping up the US occupation is necessary to win the 2004 elections.
As we know, Bush wins the election and loses his popularity – and, as his father notes acidly, any hope of a political dynasty.
It’s especially ironic since decades earlier, he asks Dubya, who has been arrested after drunken misbehavior, “What are you, a Kennedy?”
No film could do complete justice to this saga in 130 minutes, and this quickly assembled project understandably doesn’t try. The 2000 elections and 9/11 – two key moments in the president’s life – are barely alluded to in lines of dialogue, as is the Patriot Act.
While Brolin (who captures Dubya’s legendary charm, as well as his legendary struggles with the English language) and Cromwell do a solid job of getting into the Bushes’ skins, the other performances are highly variable.
Dreyfuss, Jones and Glenn make an effectively scary trio of advisers, but Newton resorts to a fairly cheap impression of Rice and Wright lacks the authority for Powell.
Banks, as Laura, and Ellen Burstyn, as Barbara Bush, are fine but don’t have all that much to do.
“W.” is entertaining as far as it goes, which is up to about four years ago. It’s a story without a final act – one that’s currently playing out in real life.
W.
The son also falls.
Running time: 130 minutes. Rated PG-13 (profanity, alcohol abuse, war images). At the E-Walk, the Chelsea, the Kips Bay, others.