Extremely disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (6 January 2014)

I don't get excited for movie releases. I've not allowed myself to, after so many disappointments. But seeing the trailer and reading about this movie caught my attention. Instantly I was looking forward to it. It looked like a Goodfellas style movie but with con men and politicians. It sounded interesting.
The problem with this analogy is that Goodfellas excelled in displaying family values, the brutality of man at the peak of greed and power, an amazing score, unforgettable camera-work; the works. The only thing this movie shares with Goodfellas is Di Niro.
The script seemed very under-written (it was very cheesy at times, very forced at others). The actors all looked like they weren't really trying, with the exception of Jennifer Lawrence who, despite the idiotic online musings of her being miscast, was the only memorable, eccentric character. Bale hid behind his disguise. Brad Cooper was Brad Cooper. I hadn't seen the other lady before but nothing she did impressed me. In fact, with such idiotic lines, she excelled in propelling the implausibility of this movie. Since when do Americans 'ooh' and 'ahh' over English royalty?! I also thought the director was a little too relaxed. Visually, it isn't anything spectacular, and there isn't really anything that makes the camera-work or directing/editing unique at all. In fact, the camera was so still, I needed to re-watch it to see if there were just a few interesting angles or moving shots.
And the story. Good God, the implausibility built up to a point where people were laughing at it. This film paints a very tainted version of real things, such as the FBI not firing an agent blatantly ignoring ethics and acting on his own accord, and mobsters stupid enough to invest in someone they didn't know and had zero reasons to trust, but had reasons not to. Apart from the opening 30 minutes, it was all too much and snowballed into a giant, idiotic force that managed to pull you out of the movie with constant, overblown plot twists.
And when people are laughing at the lunacy of it all, I know I'm not the only one. I have never heard so much giggling. It is also certainly not a movie you can watch twice either, which definitely is not a good thing. I tried.
As most will have heard, Robert Di Niro makes a one scene appearance, donning an absurd pair of glasses. His sudden appearance wasn't only pointless, it again totally shattered that fourth wall, that illusion that I'm in this fictional world. Pair this up with the impossibility of almost everything that happens. Just terrible. And you just know that this shite will clean up the 'awards' no doubt. I'm afraid I'll never see why, and I really tried to see the good when I went to see it the second time. But when Jennifer Lawrence wasn't on-screen, all I could see was average acting, absent editing/directorial technique, a forced script and a story that slowly becomes more and more impossible/laughable as the long running time of the film drags on.
A big disappoint for me, as I was looking forward to this flick. The 70's are easily my favourite decade for film. But it was so average, on so many levels, I can't help but feel cheated. Especially when the trailer made it out to feel like something that it wasn't remotely close to.
Don't be fooled.