When I heard that Oliver Stone– director of JFK, Nixon, Wall Street– was going to make a film based on the life of George W. Bush while Bush was still in office, I was more than a little intrigued. I don’t like our current president. I used to. I actually voted for him in 2000, a mistake I didn’t repeat in ‘04. However I feel about the man on a day to day basis…I must admit to always being fascinated by him as a character. Specifically a character in history. Where the hell did this man come from? And how have we let him lead us to our current state? How will history see this man? (Even if “in history, we’ll all be dead”). Ultimately, Mr. Stone’s film, aptly titled W., does not fully answer any of those questions, but it is a fairly interesting, often intriguing, surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a very average man who went all the way.

Yes, those of you expecting to walk into the theater and spend two hours Bush Bashing with one of Hollywood’s most vocal political theorists will be quite surprised, if not let down, by the direction Oliver Stone and screenwriter Stanley Weiser have taken here. Instead of blind anger and hatred, the duo have taken a good hard look at the life of an average, over-privileged, slightly spoiled, rich kid, who has probably still not decided what he wants to do for a living. Josh Brolin, who has slowly become one of the great current American actors, jumps into the role of our 43rd president head first and does his best to make a real person of one of the great characters of the new millennium. He’s all Texas charm and nervous eating. He mostly succeeds and his Bush comes across as a tortured young man desperate to step out of the long shadow cast by his father and family name, while still being desperate for that father’s attention and approval. The father is, of course, George H.W. Bush, our 41st president, and is brilliantly portrayed by the great James Cromwell. In fact, the film only feels fully alive in the scenes that these two actors are turned loose to go toe to toe, especially in a dream/nightmare scene late in the film.

Our story begins with the young Bush drinking and cavorting as a freshman at Yale pledging the fraternity that his father and father’s father, etc. were all members of. He drinks lots, probably becomes the only cheerleader in Yale history to be arrested for disorderly conduct, and gets bailed out by Bush Sr. Aka “Poppy.” This behavior continues throughout much of his life, as an oil man, as a baseball man, as an aspiring congressman. We all know the stories. The life of Bush and the feel of the film abruptly change the second the future first lady comes on the scene and the two are introduced at a backyard barbeque…is there anything more American? Elizabeth Banks portrays the then, “LBJ all the way,” Laura Welch with wit and sass, and the scene is nothing short of delightful. It plays like a romantic comedy in which the crass man charms the pants right off the interested, but apprehensive woman. It is really the only glimpse we see of the famous Bush charm, and it works. You can’t help but see the man as just that. This film will not likely make a star of Banks, who is one of my favorite actresses at the moment, but it will surely get her enough attention that she may make that next step into genuine stardom. She is the light in Bush’s life, and in this film, and my only complaint may be that she is too pretty for the role.

The politics of the film are surprisingly tame. I suppose that Stone and Weiss came to the conclusion that most of America, and the world for that matter, already know most of the story behind one of the least effective presidencies in our history, and left it at that. There is little talk of the highly debated 2000 election that put the man in office, and it ends in 2004, before we can talk about the disaster that was Hurricane Katrina. Even 9/11 is only briefly touched on. The focus is mainly the lead-up to the pre-emptive strike on Iraq, and there is plenty there for a couple of sequels to this film. Cheney the puppet master, Rove the political genius, Rumsfeld the lunatic, Powell the voice of reason and resilient participant, and Rice the Lady Macbeth. The problem with that strategy, and really the film in general is that in this age of information, there is very little that those in-the-know will find new, and those who don’t know aren’t going to start caring now. Ultimately, this film will likely never find an audience for that reason. Take into acount the current political climate and a two hour film about failed politics, and this film is practically a leper. There is, however, a breathtaking sequence in the lead-up to the now infamous State of the Union address in which Bush made his case for the Iraq invasion. People trying to write a speech has never been more fascinating to watch, and they had to do it all before SportsCenter.

In a film with lots of familiar faces the real star is actually Casting Director Sarah Finn, who put together a staggering list of names for one of the finest ensemble casts I’ve ever seen including: Elizabeth Banks, Jeffrey Wright, Richard Dreyfuss, Thandie Newton, Ellen Burstyn, Scott Glenn, and especially Toby Jones whose Karl Rove is frighteningly on target. It’s a shame that Stone keeps most of these fine actors on the sidelines and focuses mainly on Bush and how these many voices effected and certainly manipulated the man. Personally, I would like to have seen more of Burstyn’s fiery Barbara Bush. There is a great character in there, and it is a shame we didn’t get to see it. The cinematography by the usually reliable Phedon Papamicheal is generally well done here. There are some startling images throughout, but he loses his touch in the Presidential meeting scenes and they all come off looking like a made for TV movie. Chalk that up to what was probably a rushed schedule due to working with such busy actors…and also getting this movie out before election day. I doubt it will sway any votes, though there is one shot of John Mccain that I will not spoil for you.

George W. Bush is an average guy with an above average name. This movie neither praises nor fully condemns the man for the way things have gone. In fact, at times, it’s almost refreshing to watch an American politician actually make a stand for what they believe in, even if a great many of those things are misguided, if not outright wrong. Then you remember what those stands have led us to and go back to anxiously awaiting to see who is going to be elected to clean up eight years of failure. It’s a sympathetic portrait of the man, but you can’t help but end up not liking him for being so easily misled and manipulated. In the end, I wanted to see more of that fierce temperament and screw you attitude that Oliver Stone is known for, not because I want to hate on W., but because I think it would have made a better film. This is no Nixon, and certainly not a JFK, but its an interesting idea that almost succeeds.