'W.' review

Josh Brolin (Credit: Sidney Ray Baldwin/Lionsgate)

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Ambitious, reckless C-student George W. Bush (Josh Brolin) rises from Yale frat boy to Texas governor to a president who favors instinct over info. The chronology jumps back and forth from the late '60s through the early '00s, starring James Cromwell as George Bush Sr., Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush, Richard Dreyfus as Dick Cheney, Thandie Newton as Condoleeza Rice, Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell and lots more actors who kinda look like the real people but avoid dead-on impressions, apparently so as not to come off as mockery.

The buzz: This is the first-ever dramatic film about a president to come out while the guy is still in office, and considering Oliver Stone's haste to turn this around after his patronizing failure "World Trade Center," the director might not be the best person to filter recent history. "W." is far from unbiased, but rather than a two-hour, "Daily Show"-style skewering of the administration, the movie paints Bush not as an incompetent boob but rather a charming fool who just wanted to impress his dad and bit off more than he could chew.

The verdict: Really, what is the point of all this? The film covers only the well-documented, Iraq-related bits of Bush's presidency—questionable intelligence, misguided strategy, etc.--while adding no sense of what it's like to be W. or live in his country. Judging the performances is also a bit like judging Halloween costumes—votes go to Dreyfus and Brolin for nailing mannerisms—and "W." just rolls along with the promise of something only to wind up with nothing controversial nor sympathetic. Without a perspective on the man's legacy or anything new that would justify the rushed pre-election release, "W." is a cultural talking point that reiterates more than it reveals.

Did you know? Naturally, the film does offer a few amusing one-liners. Donald Rumsfeld (Scott Glenn) claims the "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." W. tells his father, "Just don't think about it too much; [it] screws you all up." And Bush Jr.'s famous question, "Is our children learning?" Well, is they?

Video: Watch our debate over "W."

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