Review: American Hustle

Although I’m sure many of us were crying out for a Stateside remake of the classic BBC1 show, this is a film I’d been looking forward to seeing for a long old time. Director David O. Russell of Silver Linings Playbook and The Fighter fame returns for this slow burning con drama, and brings along his old muckers Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Christian Bale for the ride.

The film starts with conman Irving Rosenfeld played by Bale, being hit by an FBI sting led by Richie DiMaso (Cooper) and forced into cooperating with the Bureau to bring down a large number of other tricksters. Along with his mistress Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), Rosenfeld has been a rather naughty boy, scamming poor souls with his neat little tricks. As the story unfolds DiMaso’s hunger starts to growl and they end up going for more and more high profile targets.

This is a slightly difficult film to talk about for me. The best way to start discussing it is by saying that it is a film that is trying to be two things: a slow burning talky film, and a heist/con/crime drama. While American Hustle goes a long way to bridging this gap I’m not quite sure that these two genres are comfortable bedfellows. As each piece of the puzzle is slotted in you sort of expect the pace to ratchet up a notch, and this doesn’t really ever happen. As a result the film doesn’t really sit in either camp.

For me this is a shame because the film is full of well-crafted characters. The leading cast of five (Bale, Cooper, Lawrence, Adams, and Jeremy Renner as the New Jersey Mayor) each has their own distinguishable, separate role in the piece, and each adds something to both the story and the feel of the movie. We’ve seen this done to good effect by Russell previously in Silver Linings and The Fighter, who is fast becoming a Hollywood hot property.

So the characters themselves are there in the script, but of course it takes good performances to bring them to the screen. Fortunately we have the cream of the current crop here. Bale immerses himself again (yes, he really did put on all that weight for the part) and as a result puts on an enormously convincing show. Adams as the doe-eyed sidekick is well-balanced and strong, Renner is solid, and Cooper puts in another outstanding performance playing characters that Di Niro would have played were he Cooper’s age today. He is a guy who will only get better as he gets older.

The standout however comes again from Hollywood’s latest darling, Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Rosenfeld’s wife Rosalyn. Admittedly she starts off pretty slow and reserved in this one, and I found myself wondering if her Best Supporting nomination for March the 2^nd’s Oscars had perhaps been a result of her off-screen fun-loving antics rather than the actual performance. I could not have been more wrong. As the piece moves along she evolves her character and comes to reveal its nuances. Calm and amusing when she needs to be, and volatile at other times, she perfectly pitches this role and really adds to the fabric of the movie. I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t pick up that little statue for the second year in a row.

I really wanted to love this movie. I liked it a lot, as a friend, but I’d probably have to say I’m seeing other movies. It’s a good attempt at what a combination of these two genres might look like, and has some outstanding performances, but just didn’t quite click for me. Anyway, I encourage you to go and watch it and make your own mind up.