W.

Political biopic

• Written by Stanley Weiser
• Directed by Oliver Stone

The very fact of W.‘s existence raises an interesting and important question: Why go to an Oliver Stone movie after all the times he’s disappointed us?

And W. provides an answer: There is no good reason.

Judging from the final result, Stone didn’t know whether he was making a comic farce or a serious character study of our soon-to-be-ex, totally disastrous president. He fails on all counts, creating a film that isn’t funny, dramatic, or particularly insightful. Other than suggesting that Bush lacks the self-confidence that always seemed to be his primary asset, Stone tells us little that we didn’t already know.

Stone anchors the film with two very good performances: Josh Brolin as the title character and the always exceptional James Cromwell as the first President Bush. The cast brims with talented names, but no one else is allowed to go beyond mere imitation. Yes, the makeup folks did an impressive job disguising Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney, and transforming Thandie Newton into Condoleezza Rice, but neither of them find their characters’ soul. Newton’s magnetic screen presence disappears entirely in an imitation that’s more appropriate to Saturday Night Live than serious drama.

Once again, Stone’s love of stunt casting gets in the way of the movie. What was the point of casting Daily Show alumni Rob Corddry as press secretary Ari Fleischer? I kept expecting him to be funny.

Jeffrey Wright does a fine job as Colin Powell, but he doesn’t have enough to do. The real Powell’s White House role is the stuff of Shakespearian tragedy–the hero and good man who knows right from wrong but does wrong, anyway. Reasonably enough, screenwriter Stanley Weiser treats Powell as the voice of reason, questioning the lies and predicting what the audience knows will come true. But neither Weiser, Stone, nor Wright tries to examine why this good man lied before the UN.

Stone uses songs to remark ironically (or at least to try to remark ironically) on the goings on. These include everything from “Yellow Road to Texas” to the theme of an old Robin Hood TV show. One song that isn’t in the movie is The Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime,” used heavily for the movie’s television commercials. I’m not sure if that qualifies as false advertising.

W. has its moments. The best, near the end, being a father-son confrontation in the oval office. But these rare flashes of insight don’t add up to anything like a good movie.