W.

A few of us went to Cineworld today to see' W.' Oliver Stones new film about George W. Bush thanks to Paul 'the disission maker' Forest.
I found this film had my attention completely up until about half an hour from the end, where I thought it went on for too long without anythin new happening. This film made me feel very sad for Bush in a way I cant quite explain? The film really focused on his relationship with his father 'poppy', who's constantly patronising, belittleing, comparing him to his 'angelic' brother Jeb, which is sad to see in any film let alone one about the president.
This film really heavily focused on showing Bush to be a man of simple pleasures at heart, you really get the impression that he'd be happy just to have a quite life with his family, dogs, drinking beer or Jack daniels (a lot of advertising for jack Daniels in this film!) and watching baseball. It makes out that he gives up his dream to prove something to his father, to show he can do what his father believes him to be incapable of. This makes me empathise with him, he does care about being president but much more, he wants to prove something to 'Poppy' and himself.
The film shows his journey from a young man in Texas to the President of the united states in the white house. Quite a contrast, the man 'W' is quite different too, in his younger days he seems quite the fun, outgoing charming kind of man. In the white house you get the impression he is out of his depth and is not a natural public speaker and almost fell into this role by accident or chance.
I think its hard to understand how this film was supossed to make you feel? I think this is because it didnt make up its mind. It wasn't really a satire, or a biopic or a documentary drama? I didnt feel Stone really made a desicion about what its suppose to be, which is confusing to watch. Also I get the impression Stone is trying very hard to be unbiased, not to seem like he's idealising Bush or anti him, which I completely agree with but again this makes the film more confusing to the audience.
I thought Josh Brolin gave a very good performance of Bush, and I did really enjoy this fim, like I said it made me feel sympathetic to Stone's Bush so I think it is emotionally engaging. Some of Bush's real phrases were in the script like saddam hussein 'Misunderestimating' him!