It is a story about whistleblowers and corporate intrigue, with LOTS of profanity and other excessive behavior because that’s what the people involved in the real story did and that’s how Martin likes to make movies.
See that list you put together for me would rate as boring, boring, saccharine crap, and boring sanitized version of what’s actually an interesting story. You could have seen Walter Mitty, that seems to be up your alley. There’s always options in the world, you made an uninformed decision.
Synopsis:A New York stock broker refuses to cooperate in a large securities fraud case that includes mob infiltration into Wall Street and the corporate banking world.
That synopsis is directly from the theatre website and fits perfectly with the very sanitized trailer shown the previous week by the same theatre.
The list of movies I gave were NOT "sacharine crap" (except perhaps "The Christmas Candle".
"Saving Mr. Banks" is about how a father's alcoholism and a different father's child abuse brought 2 famous figures together to bring a classic story to the screen. It's a complicated story and not a "kid's movie". Her father's death affected the author her whole life; and her pain is very deep, although it is told in a light hearted way.
"Philomena" is about a heartbroken woman who searches her whole life for a child who was taken from her as a young mother and finds him after his death with the help of a journalist whose career has been ruined. Two broken people who combine their resources to solve a mystery and who emerge better people for it. It is a true story with nothing vulgar in it despite a horrific child birth scene.
"The Book Thief" is about an orphan child in WWII Germany and features fantastic acting and filmography. Dispite the horrific setting, it is a story of human kindness. No one who has seen that movie, or read the book, would call it "saccharine". It is narrated by Death.
"The Christmas Candle" is a fable about the meaning of Christmas. The costumes are terrific. The story is silly. They should have allowed Susan Boyle to sing more than one song (in 4 different arrangements), although she handled her part adequately, considering her personal disabilities.
I'd give the first 3 movies 3-4 stars, and the Christmas Candle 1 and a half. Read that "Wolf" synopsis again with fresh eyes and see how misleading it is.
You need widen your horizons.