This movie is creative, inventive, complex, elaborate, well-acted, fantastic, hilarious and above all fun; lots and lots of fun. American Hustle knows what it’s going for and boy does it succeed! The plot is so creatively elaborate that I fear my explanation would hardly do it justice…but I’ll give it a go:
Brilliant con-man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) meets Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) at a party; feeling an interesting spark between them, the two start both a relationship and a successful partnership. Under the guise of Lady Edith Greensly, Sydney helps Irving con people into believing they’re investing money in a foreign business. This goes well until they get caught by FBI agent Rickie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper), who offers them freedom in exchange for helping them nail some other crooks. The problem is that Rickie’s goals are way too ambitious; wanting to take down corrupt high level officials that will in the process ruin some upright low level politicians (one such politician being Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner}); a goal that is too unethical for Irving’s own moral code (especially after befriending Carmine during the con). Yet Irving finds himself unable to run away since his wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Laurence) holds custody of his beloved step-son; forcing himself and Sydney (who claims she cannot leave without Irving) to stay and assist.
American Hustle plays just like a fireworks show; it’s big, exciting, wonderful to watch, and catches one’s full attention until the very end. Small aspects of the film leave big impacts overall; such as smoke screen creating a dramatic entrance for some characters to enter and coat racks being used as surprisingly effective romance décor. The only downside is that similar to fireworks shows, the finale can drag on a bit longer than necessary (to the point of sluggishness), and might have been more effective if several minutes had been cut. Despite that American Hustle is one heck of an entertaining film, with one of its highlights being the acting cast and their terrific performances. I’ve already mentioned the five major players in the plot summary, and each one of them delivers their A-game for this film. When they want to be funny, they’re funny! When they want to be dramatic, they’re dramatic! When they need to be both, well they can do that too! The film finds a way to wonderfully mix both comedy and drama; never allowing American Hustle to become too one sided. There are several scenes where Rosalyn and Irving have serious discussions about their relationship; yet the acting never allows the humor to die out. Always remaining in the way Irving holds back his cynicism and anger or how Rosalyn defends her actions in amusingly head-slapping ways.
Rosalyn is a great example of how the characters can seamlessly mix humor and drama together. Jennifer Laurence’s character is ditzy, lazy and at times incredibly naïve, yet she still contains a lot of emotional drama; drama that can indeed be taken quite seriously, even be understandable at times. Watch the scene where Rosalyn goes to the casino with Irving; while she acts immature (completely misreading the situation and hilariously making it worse for him), the film never takes her feelings of loneliness and envy lightly. Rosalyn may be a crummy wife but that doesn't mean seeing her husband’s lover won’t cause pain (she flirts with a mafia goon to make Irving jealous, but when she gets into a phone booth with him its not to have sex, but to simply hug). This strangely effective combination is performed wonderfully by Laurence throughout the film.
Rickie is an interesting character, as while he’s a complete jerk (and becomes somewhat the antagonist in the end); he remains both funny and surprisingly understandable in his quest, despite taking it too far. Just as Vincent was for Pulp Fiction or Tommy for Goodfellas, Rickie plays a very lovable villain; a character that’s both entertainingly fun to watch, and satisfying to see get his comeuppance. And then there’s Christian Bale who by far delivers one of his best performances of his career. You can just feel the passion coming from his character Irving; whether its anger, love, hate, disbelief, sorrow, or satisfaction, it’s there and it feels real. I love how this character has so much expressive anger yet so much self-control to hold him back. That, alongside the genuine sorrow expressed when he feels betrayed (or betrays someone) come across as genuine human emotion, not an actor trying to emote.
Of course the performances are just one of the many highlights; with the music, direction, and cinematography all working perfectly with the fine balance of drama and comedy. There’s this one scene where Rickie beats his boss with a phone box in a coke fueled rage; threatening him at gun point right after. Sounds pretty serious right; no humor could possibly come from that? What’s ingenious is this scene plays right alongside another where same boss is complaining to his higher up about the beating with a now calmed down Rickie acting as though it was no big deal. The two scenes switch one between the other, as the higher up fails to see the seriousness of the complaint and is humorously more interested in Rickie’s ideas (much to his bosses' dismay). The two scenes play well into each other; using black comedy to keep from becoming too serious while still acknowledging the issues Rickie’s having.
Did I forget to mention that Rickie’s boss is played by comedian Louie C.K.? I for one was completely unaware of this pleasant surprise appearance (though to be fair I purposely try not to spoil stuff beforehand if I know I’m going to see the film soon). Louie plays a great character who while aimed more towards comedy (as one whose seen his shows would expect), is still able to fit well into the script. Throughout the film he keeps on trying to tell this ice-fishing story that is constantly interrupted by Rickie who believes he knows the moral of it; leading to more hints as to what it’s about without ever revealing the conclusion. I became fascinated by this story the more that was revealed, and was actually disappointed when the film ended with it unresolved (I even waited after the credits to see if there would be an extra scene). While this was only a tiny portion of American Hustle, it still left a memorable impact on me, as did many, many other scenes and performances; which I believe is a sign of a great movie.
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