W.

Justin and I went to see Oliver Stone's new movie "W." last night. Our consensus, over wine and pizza following the movie: love Bush or hate him, the movie is worth a trip to the theater.

The all-star cast did a spectacular job of portraying (often comically) W's family and the inner circle of his administration. Particularly impressive were Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney and James Cromwell as George Bush Senior. The movie focuses on two important times in W's life: his younger days and the events leading up to his decision to run for president, and his early presidency and the events leading up to his decision to go to war with Iraq.

To be honest, both Justin and I expected the portrayal of W and his entourage to be pretty negative - but this wasn't really the case (although Condi Rice played by Thandi Newton came off hilariously bad). That's not to say that Stone's Dubya doesn't have his moments in the film: remember the infamous pretzel choking incident? Misunderestimated? But these are more of a side-bar to the movie's central theme: W's mostly well-intentioned attempts to live up to the expectations of his family and emerge from behind his father's shadow. Most of W's actions throughout his presidency, according to Stone, were the result of this desperate desire to make his father proud. All he really wanted to do, it would seem, was to stay in Texas and "be in baseball"...but it was clear that this wouldn't be enough to satisfy George Bush Senior: hence his unlikely journey to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

In one scene, Laura Bush (played by Elizabeth Banks) says "I don't think people should be defined by their politics." And maybe that's really the point this movie tries to make.