For some unspoken reason, director Oliver Stone wanted his new movie “W.” to come out before the November presidential elections.

Unfortunately for Stone, this movie will probably not change anyone’s mind about whom to vote for. Also, if he had taken his time and not rushed through to get the picture made, it might have turned out to be a good one.

It is not. What it turns out to be is a disconcerting, confusing and boring blend of flashbacks and imagined scenes from the life of George W. Bush.

Some of the acting is downright horrible. Especially Thandie Newton’s “Saturday Night Live”-style caricature of Condoleezza Rice and Jeffery Wright as a grumbling Colin Powell. Newton and Wright should be embarrassed. The two characters were not played for laughs — but came off that way.

Maybe “W.” is a comedy — but it certainly

isn’t humorous. Maybe it is satire — but it certainly isn’t satirical.

Josh Brolin and his portrayal as the president was interesting. He did not try to do an imitation of Bush, but tried to capture his essence. The minor gestures and body language were true to form.

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It is an honest and interesting way to play the character. Brolin is earnest in his portrayal, but unfortunately he is not given a whole lot of interesting material to work with, from either his director or screenwriter Stanley Weiser.

Stone was once a brilliant filmmaker. After working on screenplays like “Midnight Express” in 1978, Stone had a successful run of outstanding films — beginning with “Platoon” (1986), “Wall Street” (1987), “Talk Radio” (1988) and “Born on the Fourth of July” (1989).

From that point he started a string of ambitious but unsatisfing projects — “The Doors” (1991), “Natural Born Killers” (1994), “Any Given Sunday” (1999) and the disastrous “Alexander” (2004).

There were a few interesting successes like “JFK” in 1991, but the dreamlike fantasies that he puts in most of his movies are neither artistic nor interesting.

Stone should have known better than to take the presidential route again, after the disappointment of his “Nixon” movie in 1995.

In “W.,” the dreamlike sequences completely stop the movie in its tracks. They neither advance the story nor add to the narrative.

As in most of his movies, including the bad ones, Stone does somehow obtain a few good performances from members of his cast. James Cromwell is very good as George Herbert Walker Bush, approaching his role as a disapproving father.

Richard Dreyfuss is solid as the Machiavellian Dick Cheney. Part observer, part puppet master, Dreyfuss plays the vice-president with menace and a threatening tone. Elizabeth Banks and Ellen Burstyn are solid in supporting roles as Laura and Barbara Bush.

Brolin plays George Bush as a confused and unsatisfied young man, but the story never gets into detail of how a listless and wandering soul could end up getting himself elected to the highest office in the land. It isn’t until late in the movie — after the weapons of mass destruction fiasco — that Stone chooses to make the president a bumbling fool. Up until that point, Stone and Brolin had seemed to give try to Bush a heart and soul.

But the movie as a whole has neither a heart or a soul. Whether you care about George W. Bush or not, it is doubtful you will care about this movie at all.

INFO:

“W.”

Rated: PG-13 for language including sexual references, some alcohol abuse, smoking and brief and disturbing war images.

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Now Playing: Wide Release

bmemberto@santamariatimes.com