"W" Could Become a Victim of Its Own (Almost) Timeliness

By Steven Zeitchik

Twenty-seven days until an election of massive consequence, which seems like an excellent time for movie pundits and bloggers to take up the question of a film about a lame-duck president. Hey, Hollywood may get to the party late, but at least it brings a bottle of wine. (And -- saving grace! -- with the Obama campaign successfully painting a McCain presidency as Bush: The Sequel there may be an unlikely bump; don't people like going back to watch the original when a sequel is on its way?)

So far, the reviews on "W" have been more upbeat than we might have thought, though it seems to us there's a little bit of a Palin Effect here. It's hard to disappoint when expectations are so modest.

The conversation, as it has for months, is centering on whether Stone handles his subject fair-mindedly or cartoonishly; though the script, which we read at a previous stage, had moments of easy lampooning, the word is starting to leak out that the finished movie may show some subtlety. (THR's Kirk Honeycutt: "It deserves a fair hearing by U.S. audiences, though, for Stone goes out of his way to give Bush a fair hearing.")

Some early watchers even think Stone pulled it off on cinematic terms. Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells, who we might have expected to like it on Bush-bashing grounds, actually praises the drama : "One of the most startling and surprising films of the year." Wells is an early pundit to anoint "W" as a deeper portrait of a tragic figure -- and one made more impressive, he says, because its central character is the shallow vessel of which tragic figures are rarely made.

But there's an issue of timing that we haven't seen raised yet. So far that issue has been talked about it the context of audience (ie, right finds it polemical and left finds it redundant, so who will see it?)  And it's true, the film seems to occupy a nether space in which the man is still in office (thus removing it from the category of historical film) but comes a full election cycle too late.

It's bigger than audience, though. "W" is a story we've been watching and dissecting for eight years, which gives it a storytelling problem. It's like trying to release a new Star Wars movie years after all the great space operas have been made.

Comparisons to other feature tales only show it up further. With electoral strategizing and debates going on constantly, we already have some pretty great and fresh onscreen drama (and with the nonstop David Gergening of this election, plenty of said drama's Ebert & Roeper).

Paint a similar portrait of someone we've never heard of -- or if this movie somehow could be released in an alternate universe where no one knows George Bush Jr. -- and there's a shot here at compelling drama. In this one, even Stone's best effort may look like it's in need of a remake.

Comments

[Rand Shuler]

you missed the boat completely on this one. this movie is gonna do really well at the box office. josh brolin is hot right now. the film looks really good, and nuanced. stone is a legendary filmmaker. even his missteps are interesting. plan on seeing this around oscar time...