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When Oliver Stone, the unabashed liberal, decided to make this biography of George W. Bush many thought it might be a hatchet job. What we really received in the end is a cross between a satire and Stone’s Greek tragedy-like NIXON. Stone can’t help but work in many of the classic Bush-isms like “fool me once, shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” Stone certainly makes W. look like a fool at times, but he also makes him look like a man with strong convictions. Like Nixon’s paranoia, Stone argues that Bush’s anger toward criticism and lack of self-reflection combined with a deep desire to gain the approval of his father are the character flaws that have brought him down.

Bush Jr. (Josh Brolin, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN) was a hard partier in his younger years, booze and women being his favorite pastimes. Like many of his jobs, it was his father (James Cromwell, BABE) who pulled strings to get his oldest son out of trouble time and time again. Following a disastrous speech during his first run for the Senate, Bush asks his wife Laura (Elizabeth Banks, THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN) her opinion of his performance. When she says it was bad, he drives the car into the garage door. After he loses, he vows never to be out Texan-ed or out Christian-ed again. When his dad runs for president, George Sr. asks for his son’s help where he shows his knack for dirty politics with the infamous Willie Horton ads. Political advisor Carl Rove (Toby Jones, THE MIST) tells him he could be a great politician, but he has to do something with his life. W. finally decides to clean up his act.

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Check Out the Trailer

Many of the negative reviews of this film, based on Sue Monk Kidd’s bestselling novel, are that its too sweet and that its another one of those films where saintly African-Americans save white people. It’s not really a realistic portrayal of the South in the 1960s, but that’s not its intention. It’s a parable on guilt.

Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning, WAR OF THE WORLDS) is 14-year-old living in a rundown house with her harsh peach farmer father T. Ray (Paul Bettany, A BEAUTIFUL MIND). She’s full of guilt for attributing to her mother’s death when she was four. One day on the way to town, her and her black housekeeper Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson, DREAMGIRLS) meet up with a trio of white men dead set on stopping Rosaleen from registering to vote. Rosaleen ends up in the hospital and after T. Ray reveals a painful secret about her mother, Lily decides to break Rosaleen out of the hospital and head to the city on the back of a picture her mother had.

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