“People believe what they want to believe.”
Swift shot: Splotchy, scattered, yet somehow spectacular. Set in the late 70’s, Director David O. Russell’s American Hustle features an all-star cast, with Christian Bale committing sex-symbol suicide by playing the most charismatically-vulnerable role since The Fighter. When he first appears on screen, it is the complete opposite of what you expect, or want, to see. With a few fun twists and enough side-boob to make Peter Griffin blush, this film will get you talking, especially if you grew up amidst the sexual revolution and Carter – where fashion and fun were the order of the day. Interestingly, the whole film was cast like a Boardwalk Empire reunion. See if you can spot them all.
Set in New Jersey, Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) is a con-man who owns a few glass repair shops and dry cleaning businesses. He learned at a young age that very few people get ahead by following the rules. After watching the mafia roll his father who started the glass business, young Irv came up with a simple solution to drum up business for his dad . . . and he never really looked back. There was always a way to make people give him money, but he always controlled the hustle “from the feet up.”
At a Long Island party, he meets a sultry woman who is his match, she’s a huge fan of The Duke, no not John Wayne, Duke Ellington, whose moody tunes connect Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) and Irv in a way that he just can’t reconcile with his reality. Irv has a wife and an adopted son whom he loves very much. His rotten and delicious wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) is a real piece of work too. She isn’t naive enough to believe he is remaining faithful, and their relationship is far from ideal, but they have an odd respect for one another and both take care of their son in their own respective methods. She’s also the textbook definition of a dingbat.
Irv and Sydney set up swindling desperate people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Their plan is simple, keep telling people “No” and they will always want into something. And, it works, until the FBI finds out about their little scam. Agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) busts them, well Sydney in fact, because she handled the check. This little detail has a huge impact on how everything plays out for all three characters.
Agent DiMaso is spiraling out of control. His reality is he lives with his mom and his fiancee, but he would much rather bed Sydney’s British facade. DiMaso is driven and ambitious, and he wants his reality to be something flashy and sexy. But, his frumpy mid-western boss Stoddard Thorsen (Louis C.K.) knows his young agent is about to go rogue and is probably chasing shadows and tries to keep DiMaso on a short leash. He fails.
Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) is the most loved man in all of Camden, NJ. He is desparately trying to open casino gaming back into Atlantic City and is willing to work with people of the nefarious variety. Since the mayor is such a family man, Irv agrees to have Rosalyn at his side when he meets and convinces the mayor to take money from an Arab benefactor who needs to immideately become a citizen to facilitate the deal. This is DiMaso’s wet dream, because he will now have politicians taking bribes to help push this deal through. If you didn’t key on the “Arab” thing, you might not know about ABSCAM – where the FBI used undercover agents to bust some politicians in the late 70’s. That’s what American Hustle is really all about, how the different parties came together to pull off the near impossible.
With a definitive Boogie Nights vibe, and a lack of facial make-up, American Hustle will keep you involved throughout. The scene-stealer (no surprise) is Jennifer Lawrence. I came out of the theater thinking, that kid is the best actress in America – and she’s only 23, folks! We are lucky to be enjoying her work right now, whoever “discovered” her – THANK YOU! Personally, I haven’t seen Silver Linings Playbook yet, but it is on my must watch list. So I can’t compare her chemistry with Cooper in the two, but she has very little interplay with his character in American Hustle. Sadly, and probably by design, Rosalyn is almost completely an after-thought until the second act.
With the mafia, the Feds, a crazy wife, an adopted son, and a coked-up FBI agent desparately trying to make the bust of the century, Irv is in a “science oven” of his own making, and how he navigates the hustle is one of the most entertaining things you will see out of Hollywood this year. American Hustle also really unravels what betrayal looks like, on the ground, and serves as a kind of street-lesson for undercover operators and actors alike for why “from the feet up” is essential for success in any role you play.
If you miss the 70’s, long for any of the all-star cast, or just want a really well told story about greed, deception, corruption, and betrayal with a well balanced bit of comedy relief, American Hustle is for you. – and some of it actually happened! Consider also, you have Katniss, Batman, Hawkeye, and the Face Man in one film convincingly playing the furthest thing from action stars – what’s not to love?
