"Most of these things actually happened" False. Virtually nothing depicted in this film happened. All the characters and plot are entirely made up. It's loosely related to something that actually happened, and a grand total of two people are actual historical figures. It might be almost passable as a historical adaptation, but as a work of fiction, it fails as a comedy, as a mystery, and as a drama. Christian Bale's performance is the only thing of value; most of the characters felt like they were ad libbing lines, and delivering them flat into the camera documentary style. The tonal whiplash is intense. They needed the fraudulent veil of historicity to make this cartoonish story seem plausible. The plot is a mess, the pacing was just bad, there's very few laughs (I was told after the fact this was supposed to be a comedy..?), the bad guys are the most cardboard cutout villains imaginable... It truly feels like something written by a deluded college sophomore who is certain they're going to win an Oscar. The more I engage with this film critically, the more I hate it.