American Hustle is a small representation of the extent to which critical standards have fallen. A five star movie, 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, recommended by a number of people and highly rated in the papers was nevertheless an incoherent mash. Lots of events, bit of a character study, but no plausible central thread, no storyline to hold the bits together.

It was kind of a brew of Broadway Danny Rose meets The Sting which really were 70s movies or thereabouts (BDR 1984). But what held them together, specially The Sting, was how cleverly they were plotted. I think the charm for many was that American Hustle brought back the 1970s but only in ways that would resonate with people who weren’t actually there.

Don’t let me put you off since everyone seems to like it except me. But far from being charmed, I was happy to see the film come to an end, which was about half an hour later than it ought to have been.