"B" Rating by Robert W. Hammerle

As a person who has been an admittedly severe critic of President Bush and his Administration since his disputed election in 2000 where he won despite getting far fewer votes than his opponent, I must admit that I was completely captivated by "W." Josh Brolin doesn't impersonate George Bush, he crawls into his skin and becomes him. This is a towering performance by any definition, and it is impossible to conclude that it will fail to be recognized by the Academy when Oscar nominations roll around.

Brolin is mesmerizing from beginning to end playing a man who never could measure up to his father's expectations. A cheerleader in college, Bush's days at Yale were little more than one continuous frat party. Clearly, "W" never heard the admonition given by Dean Wormer to Flounder in the classic "Animal House" (1978): "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

While "W.'s" principal flaw is that director Oliver Stone tries to cover too much territory in one film, it nonetheless does flesh out the rather incredible story about how the privileged, rather shiftless son of an old money Texas Dynasty became President of the United States. Motivated largely by the desire to succeed in his demanding father's eyes, you get the strong feeling that our future President would have been entirely contented to carouse, play poker and do nothing more demanding than own a major league baseball team for the rest of his life.

While Mr. Stone spends significant time on both Bush's early years where, as noted, he was dedicated to little more than wine, women and song as well as some extraordinarily wonderful moments when he is President, "W." is really a movie about the lovingly complicated relationship of a father and son. As George Bush, Sr., the wonderful James Cromwell matches Brolin step by step in this evocative film. Cromwell has demonstrated time and again that he is an exceptional character actor, as seen in such performances as "Babe" (1995); "The Green Mile" (1999); "The Queen" (2006) and TV's "Six Feet Under."

There are numerous poignant scenes between Cromwell and Brolin where the latter suffers the realization that he is not only the disappointing black sheep of the family, but that his brother Jeb is the one who is expected to rise to greater heights. Father Bush bails his wayward offspring out of one jam after the next, finally reprimanding him in exasperation with the following remarkable words:

    "Who do you think you are, a Kennedy?  
        You're a Bush, dammit, act like one."

While the scenes of Bush with his Presidential Advisors do not carry the emotional impact of his personal struggles with his father's expectations, they nonetheless are engaging at every turn. In particular, Toby Jones as Karl Rove displays all of his character's real life reptilian qualities that have so effectively resulted in Bush's electoral successes. He is a man who clearly has no conscience. His only mantra is that you simply do what needs to be done to get elected.

In addition, Richard Dreyfuss is outstanding as Vice President Cheney, a man who has the personality of Gollum in the classic trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" (2000). With the help of idealogues like Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, not to mention the bumbling Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, he single handedly devised a strategy that has landed us in the forever wars of Afghanistan and Iraq.

On the other hand, Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice, Scott Glenn as Donald Rumsfeld and Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell are little more than bland caricatures of the people they are playing. While it is clear that Powell tried to breathe some reason into this "Band of Right-Wing Brothers," he was doomed from the start.

But again, all of this pales into insignificance giving the overpowering performance of Brolin. His mannerisms of Bush are captivating, down to his idiotic laugh and his stilted use of his hands when trying to make some all but incomprehensible point.

Brolin brings Bush alive as a man who is clearly in over his head and must depend on his gaggle of advisors when it comes to any fundamental decision. While his legendary tortured use of the English language is on full display, Stone resists the temptation to exploit Bush for obvious ridicule. Clearly, Bush can do that on his own.

And if I haven't made this clear, this is a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of our now reviled President. In particular, Laura Bush, played by Elizabeth Banks, comes off as a quiet, intelligent woman who is clearly in love with her admittedly goofy lunk of a husband. That love is reciprocated by Bush, and their moments together are at all times sweet and tender.

In the end, Karl Rove was able to take a man uniquely unqualified for the position of President and use the rivalry with his father as motivation to succeed on the improbable road to the White House. While most of us understood this without needing to see Stone's rather fine film, the sad reality is that this gang of ideological thieves used Bush's election in 2000 to hijack our Government for their own narrow purposes. They clearly used Bush's lovable persona to tear at the very fabric that binds our country together, and it is no wonder that we find ourselves in the mess we are in today.

But after seeing "W.," you can't help but get the feeling that Bush is sitting somewhere with Laura, saying something to the effect of, "Why do the American people hate me so much, darlin'? Hell, I didn't mean any harm!"

As we near this next election, an election where McCain has selected a Vice Presidential Candidate who has the exact same qualities exhibited by George Bush prior to the year 2000, let's hope that we have learned a very expensive lesson. George Bush may still be a man that we would like to have a beer with, but to use his own words, "We won't be fooled again."