Oliver Stone focuses on the questionable rise to power of George Dub-ya Bush, played here by James Brolin, but goes soft on the President’s shadowy past.

It begins at Yale where the young George endures the humiliation of the fraternity house initiation.

He rejects the suggestion that he follow his father’s footsteps and channels his efforts into boozing. Despairing dad George Sr (James Cromwell) pulls strings to keep his son’s name out of the papers. George continues to disappoint until he meets wife Laura (Elizabeth Banks) and unexpectedly gains his first foothold on the ladder of success as governor of his home state of Texas.

Sweeping to power in controversial fashion, Bush becomes the 42nd US President and faces some of his country’s darkest days.

There’s very little here that lives up to Stone’s reputation as the agent provocateur of contemporary American cinema.

The claws are retracted in Stanley Weiser’s screenplay, focusing largely on George’s desire to escape from his father’s shadow.

W tells us very little about its subject that we don’t already know, glossing over some of his darkest hours, including the drinking.