W., A Life Misunderestimated

I was expecting this Oliver Stone effort to be a guilty pleasure of watching Josh Brolin playing the bumbling idiot. While there was some of that - especially in the beginning - the rest of the movie felt dry; like a made-for-TV movie. Josh Brolin was perfect, he completely embodied Bush, from his facial expressions to his mannerisms to his voice. Thandie Newton was terrible as Condoleezza Rice, she seemed constipated, stiff, and her face looked like she had Bells Palsy. (They should have used Janet Jackson instead – she did a great impersonation on SNL a few years back.) Richard Dreyfess played Cheney well. But the movie was dull. We all know the story; there was nothing new here. Oliver Stone took some liberties with W’s relationship with his parents, and what was discussed when they were deciding to invade Iraq. Stone skipped over Bush’s failure with the Texas Rangers and lightly skimmed over the rest of his occupations up to his eventual running for office. And what’s with all the constant super close-ups of Brolin stuffing his face with food, drink, etc. throughout the entire film? I’d say wait for it to come out on video. Or cable.