W. - The improbable success
I'm not afraid to say, I aaaaadoré W. !
I was not very hot to see, however, the latter Oliver Stone, who recounts the life of the second President Bush. I went mainly because I had time to lose, and that Seventh Heaven in the film opposite was too short and of Lies in the next room too long. And, finally, I've even seen a second After three days later.
The pre-show American W.
I was not very motivated so ... We had told me the bad and the docudrama Being W. did not give me confidence of the masses rather than as more akin to a fake-good story. The problem of doc, quite crappy, Karl Zero and Michel Royer, was that they were trying above all to persuade himself that there was a fascinating subject. Their idea is to take the cons summing-up of current thinking: "People feel that Bush is an idiot ... We will return them to the brain is forced to prove every ten minutes of our film that it is a character much more complex than the eye! . An approach somewhat limited. Oliver Stone, himself, had the good idea to try to be as neutral as possible. In his film, Bush is neither stupid, nor smart, it does not even say it's an average guy. It suggests only that this man became president, was not of everything in its place. And it's already better squarely as a proposal.
The film does however not a very good first impression. It opens with a long scene of argumentative less akin to a political debate as a parade of look-alikes often not great, made with the cream of U.S. independent cinema today. The memory of the unreal and so Millionaire "evening look-alikes" TF1 resurfaced earlier this year. There are Thandie Newton, Crimea and ugly to look like Condoleezza Rice with an effort of makeup, so La MĂ´me completely insane for a mere supporting role, Jeffrey Wright, undershot like Kanye West and guttural like Barry White, forcing a bit too much respect for Colin Powell look like, Toby Jones (the friendly storekeeper in The Mist resembling ET) which is intended to embody possibly too soft Karl Rove (but hey, you know it is under an angelic appearance as the evil incarnate works best ...) later, we also find Ioan Gruffudd as Tony Blair (then there even more effort, it's just anything) or James Cromwell as Bush's father, a very good actor who continues his Grand Slam Men imitations of slender and pinched after interpreting the Duke of Edinburgh in The Queen . At the end of this stage, we rather pout. But no, the first scene was not it, just before there was a generic and a short top that are very important.
small anthology of doubles play ...
> Thandie Newton ( of Mission: Impossible 2 , yes quite) as Condoleezza Rice
> Toby Jones as Karl Rove
> James Cromwell as George Bush Sr.
> Ioan Gruffudd as Tony Blair
(Penelope Cruz and Gregory Coupet was also nominated for the role)
So going back. The film opens with a generic without images during which means the American national anthem. Nothing about politics, the cries of the crowd and a few honks prove that the song is sung to a sporting event. The link between sports and politics and is announced before the first image and delineate all the work ahead. The plan matrix, not surprisingly, supports this idea: Bush's fantasy came to power in a baseball stadium void he imagines barded. We will return to this point three times in the film. The first: Bush, still lonely in the stadium, imagine it even when he catches a ball in flight. At that moment, he believes hold the reins of his own life. The Second: the crucial moment, Bush is now leading a team of baseball and he is really in place then. His father, President at that time, advised him to remain outside the world of politics in which he has embarked awkwardly. The latest: This is the last shot of the film (but hey, since it is only a bio of Bush and that, in addition, now is only fantasy, I will not spoil anything) . We just take life for two hours of George W. Bush, his dreams and ambitions, all the bad decisions and bad directions it has taken. Oliver Stone clinches his work in this scene poignant, which shows Bush waiting to catch a ball in flight. The ball never back down from the sky. The symbol is perfect. That's the life of W, that of a man who missed his destiny, and that includes - while his second term escapes him entirely - a second chance never comes. While Obama offers a new hope, immeasurable, the American people, the way Oliver Stone is his gaze on the years George Bush is more than remarkable. No miserabilism, not mockery, it does not grow or belittle it just shows the pain of a man who never does what he should. While Obama offers a new hope, all experts in American politics agree that George W. Bush is the worst president the country has ever known. This tells us that Oliver Stone, the coup is how Bush has done to get there, and cause so much harm to so many people while he wanted was only to lead a team-based ball.
The Dream Life of George W. Bush
In this regard, W. works as Elephant, Gus Van Sant. The project design has nothing to do but the bottom is close. The idea is to stack up explanations and give the viewer a choice as to which seems most consistently to signify the origin of the evils now written in history. Bush said he received a divine call which would have ordered to be President? Is it because after having hit bottom and then be "born again", he decided to touch the highest aspirations? Is this, again, to finish the job his father (defeat Saddam) never supported the American people did not do re-elected despite his victory in Iraq? Is this, finally, to compete and defeat his brother Jeb, and thus win the love of his father? The sum of all these possibilities remain, of course, the best explanation.
In all this, be sure to greet Josh Brolin in the title role. Never in imitation, most in personification, it is absolutely brilliant from start to finish. Another big congratulations to Oliver Stone for the intelligence of its staging. Discreetly, he continues his speech with his images. Always in order to evoke the sad fate of a man who has not taken the right path, which never found its way, distills Stone ingenious symbols that recall the continuous problem. When Bush and his team walk through the gardens of the White House, the Chairperson shall determine the troop and remark: "We missed the cross-road." Contrary to his fate, in which Bush never managed to take this exit and preferred sports to politics, the President and his family in this scene can then turn back. Another important example, this passage in which Bush received the Reverend Earl Hudd in his office when he is governor. We see W sitting successively in three different chairs in the room. So many see the allegory of the journey of this man who has never managed to find his place, never able to choose where to land, an essential idea of the work here and summarized graphically in less than a minute.
Far from the cynical farce announced W. is a beautiful film, moving portrait of a man who has just missed his life. And what makes it an exciting movie is that this failure mode exists not only broke a man's life, but those of thousands of innocent at the same time.
