W.

Wifezilla and I watched Oliver Stone's W. the other night and both of us liked it. If you're a fan of Bush, you probably won't be a fan of this movie, but that's only about 20% of people polled, so chances are W. will appeal to a broad audience.

Unlike other Stone movies, like JFK, W. does not reek of conspiracy and paranoia. I wouldn't say its historically accurate by any means, but the movie does seem to take a good stab at guessing what some of the behind-closed-doors meetings of Bush and his cabinet were like.

Josh Brolin was simply outstanding as George Bush. His performance reminds me of how well Joaquin Phoenix nailed Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. Scene after scene, I was amazed at how well Brolin captured Bush's mannerisms and cadence. Especially impressive is how he avoided a parody of the president; there's a clear distinction between Brolin's Bush and that of Will Farrell's.

Still, not all the performances were as good. Wifezilla didn't like Dreyfuss' Dick Cheney and we both hated Thandie Newton as Condaleezza Rice. I had no problem with Stone spinning Rice as Bush's toadying sycophant, but Newton spoke with a nasally, Urkel-esque voice that effectively destroyed entire scenes. I can't believe Stone let her play the character that way. If her character were in more of the movie, she may have single-handedly ruined it.

By the end of the movie, when Brolin's Bush struggles to answer a reporter's question as to what mistakes he has made during his presidency, I don't loath Bush anymore. I pity him. Stone obviously doesn't like Bush, and paints the man's presidency as a failure. Even so, Stone suspects that Bush realizes his cabinet conspired to lead him into a war he should have never started. I was painful to watch Bush grill Cheney and Rumsfield and Powell, almost berating them as to the location of the WMDs. Bush asks them the same question the rest of America asks later: how could CIA and NSA intel be so wrong?

Most likely because those agencies were telling the powers-that-be what they wanted to hear. For that, Bush deserves full blame for the Iraq war, despite any regrets he may have that he can't share publically. I blame him, but W. helps me understand how it all could have gone down and imagine a circumstance where Bush might not have ended up as one of the worst presidents the United States ever had.