Strip out the period costumes and music and what are you left with?

Rating: 3/10 (14 February 2014)

Terribly unfunny, overlong; this movie goes for the cheapest possible laughs. Like all period movies, the actors constantly have to struggle to surmount the weird hairdos--none succeed. Jennifer Lawrence was ATROCIOUS, too broad, like a parody. Neither the Amy Adams character nor the Christian Bale character were remotely sympathetic. I guess we were supposed to get caught up in their love story (?) or feel sorry that Bale has a heart condition (who cares?) The movie uses too much voice-over in the first half hour, which is always the sign of lazy storytelling. Even when the voice-over disappears the storytelling doesn't pick up. The entire movie felt like a rush job; another year or two honing the screenplay might have resulted in a decent movie.
3/10 stars.