Way over praised

Rating: 4/10 (2 February 2014)

This takes place in 1978. A con man named Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and his assistant Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) get involved with a crooked FBI man (Bradley Cooper) and get involved with the Mafia and various politicians.
This movie has been hyped to the heavens as being one of the best films of 2013. Please! This is an over indulgent, sloppy and confusing mess. It starts off by throwing us right in the middle of the story with no explanations of who anyone is or what's going on. This goes on for 30 SOLID MINUTES! I literally dozed off because I was so bored and confused! Then they go back and start from the beginning. What exactly was the point of the opening 30 minutes? The story itself is somewhat interesting but it's very slow and confusing. There are so many double-crosses it's hard to keep track of what's going on. Also one of the very nice characters (played by Jeremy Renner) is treated horribly. On the plus side there's a great soundtrack of 70s music and they got the styles and fashions of the era down to a T. The acting is for the most part good. Bale is admirably slimy and Cooper is having lots of fun in his role. Adams I couldn't quite get a grasp on. Her character is difficult to figure out but that may be the point. Jennifer Lawrence is easily the best actor here. As Irving's wife she's loud, aggressive, beautiful (in a way) and VERY funny. However, all in all, I was pretty bored and underwhelmed by what I saw. Why this is getting praised to the high heavens is beyond me.