This fictional film, set in the late seventies and a little beyond, deals with the realities of a corrupt con man and a woman he falls in love with, Sydney, portrayed by Amy Adams. Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) preys on people who want to invest little and gain a lot in return, and people who want to buy art, not realizing the forgeries they are paying for. FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) enters the scene and begins to call the shots, enlisting Irving and Sydney to take down those who are just as corrupt or more so. However, Irving devises a plan so he ends up pulling the strings without DiMaso realizing it.
Jennifer Lawrence is hilarious as Irving’s free spirited and off-the-wall wife Rosalyn. In one scene Irving brings home a gift from a politician friend, a microwave oven, which is just being released during this time. He instructs Rosalyn not to put any metal in it. She does put a metal food tray in and it burns up and out. She then proceeds to tell him she had read that the nutrients are lost in micro-waved food and she actually helped them nutrient wise, and that microwaves are a fire hazard and she helped to keep their house from burning down! The film does a nice job in capturing this time period with the clothes, the colors, and the hairstyles.
The problem is the content in this film. A married man has an affair with a single woman, another man has an affair with the single woman, and the married man’s wife winds up having an affair. There is strong language throughout the entire film including the F bomb being repeated over and over. There is drug use as well. All the combined elements keep this one from being Dove Approved by a long shot.