American Hustle Review

“Did you ever have to find a way to survive and you knew your choices were bad, but you had to survive?”

Photo by Francois Duhamel - © 2013 Annapurna Productions LLC All Rights Reserved

Taking us back to 1978, to the era of disco-influenced getup, big hair and aviator sunglasses, David O. Russell embarks upon his most audacious film to date with vivacious crime-comedy caper American Hustle. Reprising his relationship with Christian Bale and Amy Adams from The Fighter and Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper from Silver Linings Playbook, his exhilarating direction and spontaneous immediacy leads to a film that feels uncompromisingly real as if it were happening in the moment. Loosely based on a late 1970s FBI sting operation, American Hustle is more interested in fictionalising characters and situations fashioned by the actors and inspired by the director’s own imagination. "Some of this actually happened" are fittingly the first words we see onscreen.

We open on a potbellied and balding Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale), who is shown carefully gelling an elaborate comb over in his bedroom mirror. This extended opening shot may seem indulgent but there is no underestimating the part appearance plays in the life of a con artist. We are then briefly introduced to seductive partner in crime Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) at a Long Island pool party. Bonding over a mutual belief in the necessity of reinvention and the rejection of reality as dictated by society, the two kindred spirits become quite the con artist ‘power-couple’. Prosser's alternate identity as Lady Edith Greenleigh, an English aristocrat with ‘royal connections’, comes in handy when the pair takes to swindling money from businessmen in need. Christian Bale is unrecognisable as Irving. He is morally duplicitous, somewhat charming and undeniably compassionate at exactly the same time. Amy Adams is especially outstanding, bringing endlessly layered complexities to her character while going in and out of an American and English accent. Showing as much cleavage as legally possible, it seems the less clothing she wears, the more confidence she exudes.

Meanwhile, Irving’s wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) – a feisty and manic-depressive homebody – finds divorce to be morally reprehensible and uses their son as a reminder of their commitment, dangling above him like a guilty charm. Lawrence once again goes all out and steals every scene she’s in.

FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) is somewhat of a loose cannon himself. Delusions of glory dance around in his head, along with feelings of self-dissatisfaction and a preoccupation to take down organised crime no matter what cost. Even the New Jersey Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Runner) is entangled in the throes of his ploy.

In the real world, these protagonists are entirely the wrong crowd to get caught up in but they remain sympathetic and their vulnerabilities, all too relatable. While wildly peculiar in their own manner, in the grand scheme of things these characters are all united by a common ambition, whether they’re con artists adopting bogus identities, an FBI agent suffering delusions of grandeur or a mayor caught on the wrong side of law, they are hustlers striving for a life better than their own. The overarching crime plot is background to the personal and romantic dramas that take place between transformative personas who appear one straw away from breaking point.

With a crackling script and a fast paced plot that throws curveballs left, right and centre, American Hustle is uproariously funny, sometimes outlandish, but all together engrossing. Impeccable casting and a handful of unforgettably eccentric characters mark it as a serious contender for every major movie award.