Disappointed, well acted, but story just not there

Rating: 6/10 (21 January 2014)

I was really looking forward to see this movie as soon as I saw the first preview.
I thought they got the look and feel of the 70s right on. Great job with wardrobe, hair, make-up etc. I also thought the performances were very good, especially Bale and Amy Adams. The problem with this movie was the story. It just didn't move. It seemed that from the beginning, they were sure to point out that this was not supposed to be a true telling of the Abscam scandal. It starts with a line saying, "Some of this actually happened." A clever way of telling us that "we embellished the story a lot". Great, they can get creative. The problem is, you didn't feel like you were getting a history lesson, but you also didn't get an entertaining story. It was too slow, too long.