W - Why? A Movie Review

Bill Gallagher

[Editor's note: Today, we're thrilled that Bill Gallagher has joined BlueOregon as a regular contributor. For 25 years, Bill has been a fixture in Portland talk radio and radio news. And now, he's here. Welcome, Bill.]

W is weird. You're never sure if what you're seeing is truth or fiction. Most of it rings really true. John Kerrry or Al Gore could watch W and smack his forehead, "I can't believe I lost to this guy."

But when W gets into the strained relationship between father and son what are we supposed to believe? Who but each of these Presidents knows how he really feels about the other? That might sound Shakespearean but believe me, it isn't in W.

Oliver Stone's doing a Screenwriting 101 number by making that father-son conflict the central premise of his movie. This tension is supposed to explain the man we've got in the White house for another couple of months. But more often his complaints about "Poppy" just make him sound like a whining, ungrateful son.

What made W run? Pleasing "Poppy". But W could never live up to his expectations. He was having way too much fun.

Will Ferrell could have played W during his wild years. Which is why I'm not sure if all we're seeing is true when it comes to W in the 70s. Did he quit all those jobs? Did he really drink that much Jack Daniels? And how about that gal at the bar he proposed to long before Laura? Was she pregnant? Did "Poppy" take care of that?

Where can I go to look this stuff up? Sorry Oliver Stone, I like most of your movies but can't count on you for 100% true facts.

One fact that's not in question is that W woke up the morning after his 40th birthday party so hung over that he stopped drinking then and there. I had high hopes for the way Stone might render that sober moment but all we get is bright sunshine in W's face and him mumbling "...can't go on like this....I'm through." I guess I was hoping for a scene like the one in TRAINSPOTTING where Ewen McGregor goes off the H. THAT was brilliant. W is not that kind of movie. It plays things pretty straight and doesn't overdose on drama. Oliver Stone subdued? Indeed.

Josh Brolin plays W from his days at Yale to his days in the Oval Office. That's from the ages of 21 to 58. He seems so much like what W might really be like that it's scary. I wonder what the real W would think of this performance by Barbara Streisand's stepson?

Maybe it's because Brolin's so good that the W he creates for this movie is not unlikeable.

How do you think YOU'D turn out with a father like that? And a mother like that? James Cromwell plays the elder George Bush and Ellen Burstyn puts on a really bad white wig to play the not-so-lovable Barbara Bush. Not only does his father favor his younger brother Jeb, he refuses to look W in th eye and tell him what he's thinking. He sends him notes. And that drives W crazy. He not being not a note-writing kind of guy.

W plays like an extended episode of The West Wing at times. But that great television show didn't have to deal with facts the way W does. So when we get the players walking and talking at the same time - a favorite trick of The West Wing - the players in W are dealing with real stuff. Iran. Iraq. WMD's. The Axis of Evil. To make up for all the talking in W. Stone freely drops in montages of combat action in Iraq and war protests in Europe. But there's still a lot of talking. This movie has more short speeches in it than both political conventions combined.

If you love reading memoirs of former Bushies and you snatch up the latest Bob Woodward book when it's published you'll find few surprises in W. Behind-the-scenes discussions are practically public record these days.

Even though I stopped reading Woodward's books about the inner workings of this Bush Administration a long time ago. I couldn't get rid of the feeling I was seeing them re-enacted as I sat through W the other afternoon. So in that way, Stone is serving a purpose by rounding up the usual suspect moves of this Bush Administration and stringing them together in a mostly coherent narrative. But you know what? Bush supporters aren't going to see this movie and everyone else has already seen enough.

Two actor's performances are worth noting. Elizabeth Banks plays Laura Bush in a Texas-sexy way. Sure she's a librarian, but she smokes and drinks and puts up with W when he's wild. Did Stone mean to generate some sympathy for W? How bad a guy could he be if this version of Laura loves him? Banks plays Miri in ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO and was in Scubs for a season. Jeffrey Wright (CASINO ROYALE, BROKEN FLOWERS, ANGELS IN AMERICA) gives us a Colin Powell who only very reluctantly goes along with the WMD con job. Powell never seems comfortable sitting at the table with Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss - who else) and Rumsfeld (Scott Glenn) and Wright makes it show. (Does anyone doubt Powell will soon be back at that table, and feeling much more comfortable?)

W is not a bad movie. But I don't know that you need to rush out to see it at big screen prices. W can wait. We've got an election to get through.

By Bill Gallagher Oct. 30, 2008