My Dub-ya Movie Review

W. (three stars total) does the reverse of Robert Altman's Popeye. Instead of animated characters going from 2D to 3D, we see real people become editorial cartoons. Josh Brolin plays a cockeyed George W. Bush like Robin Williams' Popeye. Even the verbage comparison is not that far off. Condoleezza Rice, as portrayed by Thandie Newton, gurgles and squawks just like Shelly Duvall's Olive Oyl, sags the corners of her mouth to make the best frog face you've ever seen, and squints humorously at others in what seems to be perpetual discomfort (watch for her swatting away flies on an outdoor walk). These two actors alone are worth the price of admission in this glorified, two-hour SNL skit, but they are not the only funny ones. Through pursed lips, Jeffrey Wright makes Colin Powell sound like Robert Downey Jr.'s character in Tropic Thunder. You might also like Scott Glenn's tired, old (possibly off his rocker) Rumsfeld and Toby Jones' tired, older-with-every-disaster Karl Rove. Tony Blair is Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four movie. The acting is hardly the only cartoonish aspect though. There are more ten gallon hats in some scenes than there are heads in Texas. The whole movie is lit up as bright as the Rangers' stadium that it begins and ends in. There's a glare on everyone's cheek in every scene, from the sweaty C.I.A. director to the glowing evangelical minister. The best line is when that same minister tells the converting Bush who feels so detached, "you're one of us; you'll never be alone again . . . (in) a country full of wounded sinners." The best Bush speech is accompanied by an acoustic, banjo-like version of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." It's interesting to note that the actual Gulf War news footage is a stark contrast to the staged Iraq War stuff (set to "What a Wonderful World" remake) at the end. The perfect re-creation of a State of the Union address was visually impressive and hilarious. The movie is way too long and the last twenty minutes or so turn into soap opera. There's a repetitive piano theme which works well the first time for Powell's emotional monologue but then becomes maddening the three or four other times it's used. That and the casting of James Cromwell as Bush Sr. are my only real problems with the movie. I just couldn't picture him saying "read my lips, no new taxes," and in the final dream sequence he turns as scary as his character from L.A. Confidential. That reminds me, there's a scene of W. almost choking to death that's freakier than anything I've watched since Punch Drunk Love. If you're into that kind of thing, I recommend this movie for some sad, but frequent laughs.