W.

The theme of baseball runs throughout this film, from almost the first shot to the last, and fittingly the best description one could give this movie is "strike". The fundamentals are there, the swing is hard, but it never connects.

Towards the end of the film, George W. Bush Jnr. looks in a mirror and notices the lines on his forehead, his grey hair proiminent in the top of the shot; and with wife faithfully watching over at him, he wonders how they got to be there. Its at that point you also realise you want to know the answer. How did the fratboy failure end up President of the USA?

For most of the movie its easy to be too engrossed by the performance of Josh Brolin as G.W.Bush, and the quirks and now cliched lines "misunderestimated me, I dont do nuance, Old Europe etc" that dominate the films dialogue, to notice that the quick cut editing that jumps throughout Bush's life still hasn't give real insight into his world.

Take the issue of faith. Prominently the film opens with a great debate to launch the war on Iraq, conducted in the oval office. As the discussion ends, Bush calls them all into prayer. And throughout the movie he will call for prayer at the end of meetings, or ask priests to pray with him. Yet Stone lines these up against scenes and throw away lines that show Bush recognising & using the electoral power of the evangelical vote. The result is to somewhat cheapen Bush's faith, it becomes a public act, and in that way leaves you once again wondering if the frat boy is still under there, just now with a nicer, god friendly suit.

However, having studied & closely followed Bush, I dont think you can understand the man without understanding how important his faith is for him. In this way Stone seems to approach and yet constantly miss saying something important about Bush. He handles the relationship with his Father (played very capably by James Cromwell) better, likewise Bush with his staff, but again it all seems a public act, with the real man never emerging.

Perhaps this is a story none can yet tell, without histories cleansing lens, certainly the push to release the film before Dubya's term was over has harmed the film, to the point the editing feels sloppy and Stone is even forced to mount the words "The End", for nothing in the final scene would otherwise impress on the audience that the journey was coming to an end. It just, stops.

There's a great tragic story one day to be written about George W. Bush Jnr. A man of good brought down in his wayward approach to hunting evil. In the moral choices he made (war and torture) in search of peace, in the relationship between the youth who sinned and the adult who steeled himself with his faith in revelation. In the way he represented so much of America, in East Coast money and privilege, yet at heart was a religious cattle rancher and good times drinker.

But this movie does not quite tell that story. It shows but doesn't examine these themes, it plays to an inside/informed audience for most of its humor, and leaves a Bush shaped hole in the middle of the entire project in never quite believing that Bush is who he is. It keeps trying to peel back the layers, without realising this just leaves you with a picture which feels more superficial and more fake than when you began. If you cant emphathise with, you cant understand. Now Stone doesnt make Bush a fool or tyrant, a trap he could have easily fallen into. But he also doesnt actually say or reveal anything great about the man. You almost feel Stone made the movie just to try and figure out who Bush is, and yet... failed.

In the end, I think The W. trailer does a better job of showing the question than the movie does. But only the trailer is honest enough to admit it doesn't have the answer.