W.

Oliver Stone has always been hit-and-miss with me. Sometimes he’s brilliant (JFK, Platoon), but sometimes he gives us the worst movie of the year (Alexander). Regardless of the end result though, he always seems to put his heart and soul into any project.

This hit-and-miss aspect of Stone’s career is distilled into W., the movie about soon-to-be-former US president George W. Bush. This movie was all over the place. As with the case of Alexander the Great, Stone doesn’t seem to quite know where to begin, or what he wishes to present.

We get some scenes of Dubya’s early life, through school and various failed employments; and I found all that fascinating. It taught me something, which I appreciate. I also immensely enjoyed the scenes with his family; seeing the relationship between him and his father, and how he met Laura. All very interesting (and, at times, amusing).

But then Stone gets caught in trying to tell us about his presidency, and I felt like this is where he lost it. Look, we don’t need to meet all these people who have worked with him in the White House these past eight years. We know those people already. Or if Stone thinks we don’t, he needs to present us with something new.

As for performances, I enjoyed most of them. Josh Brolin is fantastic; he has all the mannerisms down, and the swagger, but he doesn’t fall into the trap of simply impersonating Bush. Kudos to Brolin (and Stone) for that. Richard Dreyfuss (as Dick Cheney) and James Cromwell (as George H. W. Bush) are both excellent, and most of the supporting cast is strong. There’s one exception though; Thandie Newton (who is usually decent) as Condoleezza Rice is one of the worst performances of the year. All she does is squint and nod her head. There is no acting, this is her playing Rice, the worst offense when portraying a real person. God, that was terrible.

In the end, I wanted more of the Bush we don’t see through the media. I wanted more of the family scenes, I wanted more Jeb and more Laura and much more Bush 41. This movie was disappointingly unprovocative, and altogether a mess. There’s a good story there, but I think Stone might be the wrong man for the job.

I could go on for pages about this movie, but I’d rather move on to more pleasant things. I’m ready to see Barack Obama take office, and I am likewise ready to forget about this movie.