OK, so Oliver Stone called it W . But he could have named his new movie Father Knows Best. You can see for yourself starting Oct. 17 when Stone's biopic of U. S. President George W. Bush opens in theatres just as the Yank presidential election gets into the crucial stages of the pick-me contest. Stone's two-hour-and-seven-minute profile won't have much of an impact on the selection process but you can expect your fellow Americans to have many and varied opinions as Bush is depicted from his under-achieving college days to the more news-worthy White House engineered Iraq invasion. Through all of those wide-ranging activities which vary in tone from comedy to drama and back again, it makes you wonder. Lots of wonder as we travel through the thrill of W. victories and the agony of W. defeats. Recurring like a bad dream, there are the appearances of disapproving dad George Sr. admonishing his not-so-inspired son. Remember Stone's Nixon ? The director allows us behind the scenes here too, so we are witnesses to W.'s early reckless phase of drinking and driving and messing up just as some self-entitled good ol' boy Texans would. We also get full view of W.'s born-again conversion and his commitment to making himself a better, albeit still guileless, person. At the forefront of all this is Josh Brolin, another Texan, who slips into the boots of W. James Cromwell plays father figure George H. W. Bush, looming over each and every scene ...
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