Reel To Reel: W.

Beating around the Bush.

How It Rates: **1/2
Starring: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, James Cromwell, Ellen Burstyn, Thandie Newton, Richard Dreyfuss
Rated: PG-13
Red Flags: Copious Texas-sized Beer Guzzling and Liquor Draining, Mild Language

For the record, I'm an Independent. I parted ways with the Republican Party after the Iraq war went sideways and when the War on Terror became a license for some to rip up the Constitution. I'm a tricorn-wearing patriot.

W. is not a partisan hit piece, thankfully, but rather an exploration of President George W. Bush's contentious relationship with his statesman father and his struggle to evolve from an overgrown Texas frat boy. The story cuts back and forth between Bush's rise to power and the run-up to the Iraq war as it attempts to explain W.'s country-boy politicking. Josh Brolin masters the president's cadence and mannerisms, nearly disappearing into the role by the end. Still, the film fails to completely answer how a boozy son from a landmark political family who can't hold down a job rises to baseball team owner, then governor, then president.

Our first snapshot of W.'s youth comes from a drunken Yale fraternity initiation in which Bush demonstrates a gift for networking, if not oratory. His taste for beer and munchies are unsatisfiable, and it seems drinking and snacking are the only things he can do well. "If I remember correctly, you didn't like the sporting good store," Bush Senior (Cromwell) points out during one of several confrontations. "Working for the investment firm wasn't for you either, or the oil rig job."

Daddy ends up bailing W. out of several messes and pulls the job strings until the young Bush quits drinking and finds God. George Junior wonders why he can't ever be good enough in his father's eyes and resents the attention paid to brother Jeb, the rising star of the family. Bush connects with his future wife Laura (Banks) at a Texas-sized barbecue, finding a woman he terms a "good listener."

Karl Rove (Toby Jones) spots Bush's folk appeal and gladly molds him into the kind of candidate people would "like to have a beer with," advising his ward not to swing at anything he can't hit. An early press conference during Bush's run for Texas Governor reveals an unsteady political novice, but still, W. wins the race. The film unfortunately leaves out a turning point in that 1994 election, when incumbent Governor Ann Richards surreptitiously referred to Bush as a "jerk," costing her crucial votes.

The film meticulously lingers on high-level meetings on whether to invade Iraq, notable for how little Bush speaks compared to his inner circle. The group struggles to determine whether or not there's WMD's. Vice-President Cheney (Dreyfuss) emerges as the picture's heavy, wanting to "drain the swamp" of terrorism in the mideast but more concerned with the region's untapped oil. Colin Powell (Jeffrey Wright) seems the lone voice of reason, asking if America can live with a pre-emptive strike policy. President Bush pipes up, speaking in generalities of "freedom" and "democracy," providing the selling point regardless of whether Saddam has the goods.

W. is a sympathetic picture to the chief executive in that it portrays him as not a brainless dolt but a Texas politico leveraging a good-'ol-boy management style onto a national stage. He deals in terms he can get his hands around, going by his gut and letting his underlings handle the rest. When he learns American forces haven't found the WMD they expected, I felt some sympathy for him, having to wriggle out of the hole bad advice and intelligence dug for him at the hands of his advisers. Many of us will also identify with the universal need to please our fathers -- and mothers.

Again, however, the film paints an incomplete picture. It also strays into unnecessary surrealism, showing W. fantasizing making a outfield catch or sparring with his father in the Oval Office. Such is the world of Oliver Stone, but compared to what he could've given us, we got off easy.