A missed opportunity if ever there was one. The story of the so-called Business Plot is serious, especially for Americans in the MEGA era. Yet David O. Russell decides it is worthy of a confectioner's approach, emphasising romance and whimsy.

Having said that, the romance and whimsy, if you can bear them in truckloads, are well enough handled. The cast, except for an anaemic cameo by Taylor Swift, is full of big hitters. Christian Bale seems to be playing Willem Dafoe, but he does so with his trademark transformational bravura: I doubt there's a more genuinely versatile Hollywood A-lister around right now. John David Washington, Margot Robbie and Zoe Saldana give the movie much needed warmth, Robert De Niro brings his unique authority to his role of a top military man; and there's solidly eccentric support from Remi Malik, Anya Taylor-Joy, Andrea Riseborough, Michael Shannon and Mike Meyers.

Technically, it's rather self-conscious. Emmanuel Lubezki's camera swoops and dances around Judy Becker's largely studio-set production design, to the accompaniment of Daniel Pemberton's innocently piping score. It's the make-up department, for which Russell provides some real challenges, which proves to be the film's greatest asset.