Tonight just a little of the focus on John McCain and Barack Obama will be diverted to that other guy in politics. Remember George W. Bush? He’s still our president though no one really agrees with what he says anymore and his approval rating is just about hitting rock bottom. Still, the spotlight will be on him as the movie W. premieres.
 

The film, directed by Oliver Stone, features an all-star cast of Josh Brolin as good ole Georgie, James Cromwell as Bush Sr., Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush, Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush, Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney, Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice and Jeffrey Wright as Gen. Colin L. Powell. On a side note, is Powell going to endorse Obama or what?
 

Okay, back to the movie. The real surprise is that the film isn’t a total out-and-out attack on the easily attacked president. Instead, as The Boston Herald explains, the movie portrays Bush as a “sympathetic pseudo-tragic figure” who is just trying to impress his daddy.

Framed as a goofy Oedipal tale about a young man’s doomed-to-fail quest to outshine his superstar father, the film pulls off a genuine stunt, transforming the most polarizing figure in recent American history into a sympathetic pseudo-tragic figure.

Following an opening dream sequence set inside an empty baseball stadium, we bounce between scenes set during the planning and execution of the war in Iraq and flashbacks to George W.’s coming-of-age in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.

George (Josh Brolin), known as “Junior” to his venerable “Poppy” (James Cromwell) and his doting, short-tempered mother, Barbara (Ellen Burstyn), is a ne’er-do-well “legacy” student and frat boy at Yale, where he gets mostly Cs.

Oh Dubya, he’s just a poor (slash really, really rich), misunderstood Ivy Leaguer desperate to live up to his father’s expectations and not totally **** up  the country while he’s at it. It may not make for good politics, but hopefully it makes for good entertainment.