Review 299: American Hustle
In 1978, con artists Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) who are forced by FBI agent, Richie Di Maso (Bradley Cooper) to set up an elaborate sting operation on corrupt politicians, including, Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner), the mayor of Camden, New Jersey.
The plot is a beautifully crafted, smartly written, very funny and poignet character study. Not only that, it also deals with strong themes of Love, Reinvention and Identity. It poses the question: As you survive, how do you reinvent yourself and what happens to your love?
Love: At its core American Hustle is, essentially, a love story: Irving and Sydney aren't just a pair of criminals who are trying to steal things, they're people like you and me who want to live the magic that anyone else wants to live. As the film goes on, the film slowly reveals that Irving is a real romantic underneath. When he meet Sydney, for the first time in his life, he exposes himself to someone, he makes himself completely vulnerable. He invites her in, warts and all and shows who he truly is and expects as everyone in his life has always done for her to walk out on him. Instead she stays and he's just smitten. They're true soul mates because they truly can't say anything that they are thinking to each other and not judge each other
Reinvention: Everyone in this film is trying to better themselves, they just do it in ways that are moraly questionable. Becuase Irving and Sydney are con artists, they have to reinvent who they are in order to survive. Richie Di Maso is also out to reinvent himself because he has these dreams and aspirations of being an FBI mogul who takes down white collar crime.
Identity:
It's about what makes people tick and what lengths they'll go to get what they want. Each character wants something to enriched they're lives, desires, dreams and goals and they go to very extreme lengths to get it and it's really engaging and hypnotic to watch these character do these actions. Everyone can justify their actions. They bring us as an audience in and confuse them with agreeing with them.
The way the characters behave and act represent the trials and tribulations people were going through during those times, Watergate had collapsed, Viatnam was happening, people had very poor job and were earning little and people wanted to better their lives but they couldn't and they resorted to stuff like cons or being impostors to get wealth and this film conveys that very well.
The American Dream is featured in an idealistic way: Rosenfeld and Prosser come from very poor backgrounds and at the beginning of the film they come to America to better their lives.
David O'Russell's direction is unobtrusive, the cinematography is beautiful and captures the beauty and , the production design (recreating the late 70's and early 80's) is excellent, the costumes are colourful, the make up is rich and vibrent, the soundtrack is terrific, the locations are wonderful and the ending was superb.
The acting is spectacular, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner and Jennifer Lawrence deliver exceptional performances though Bale and Adams steal the show in their roles as Irving Rosenfeld & Sydney Prosser. They are two con artists who are just living in order to adapt to each situation become what they need to be in order to survive. Eventually, they get caught and forced to work for Di Maso. Bale's Irving is a character who has desperately tried to change his circumstances since birth and is willing to tell any amount of lies to achieve a different kind of life. Bale brings a massive amount of charisma to the part.
As for Adams playing Sydney Prosser, for about a third of the film, she puts on a British accent because she's posing as English aristocrat Lady Edith Greensly, she's become someone else
Adams exhubes confidence in the role
Bradley Cooper plays a right sleazebag in the role of FBI agent, Richie Di Maso. He initially comes across as someone who wants to help Irving and Sydney but eventually it turns out that everything he does is to feed his own ego, polish his reputation and create a world where he feels powerful and drops any pretence of earnestness and sincerity the moment he's in reach of something he wants.
As the film progresses, Di Maso psyche starts to crack and he becomes more and more unstable
yet at the same time, Cooper brings a childlike vulnerability and a wonderfully smarmy energy to the part and how he's
Jeremy Renner is also terrific in this film playing Mayor Carmine Polito. In a film filled with moral grey characters, Mayor Polito is someone with very admirable and noble intentions as all he wants is to improve his community which he loves. He's someone whose very good at what he does and love his job and is an all round principled and no nonsense politician.
Jennifer Lawrence is hilarious playing Irving's volatile and unpredictable wife Rosalyn. She's a character that's either very up or very down - she's very eccentric and not at all without her issues. She's such a reprehensibly stupid character
American Hustle is a funny and intriguing crime comedy and David O'Russell's best film in years, 5/5.
The Anonymous Critic.
Bradley Cooper plays a right sleazebag in the role of FBI agent, Richie Di Maso. He initially comes across as someone who wants to help Irving and Sydney but eventually it turns out that everything he does is to feed his own ego, polish his reputation and create a world where he feels powerful and drops any pretence of earnestness and sincerity the moment he's in reach of something he wants.
As the film progresses, Di Maso psyche starts to crack and he becomes more and more unstable
yet at the same time, Cooper brings a childlike vulnerability and a wonderfully smarmy energy to the part and how he's
Jeremy Renner is also terrific in this film playing Mayor Carmine Polito. In a film filled with moral grey characters, Mayor Polito is someone with very admirable and noble intentions as all he wants is to improve his community which he loves. He's someone whose very good at what he does and love his job and is an all round principled and no nonsense politician.
Jennifer Lawrence is hilarious playing Irving's volatile and unpredictable wife Rosalyn. She's a character that's either very up or very down - she's very eccentric and not at all without her issues. She's such a reprehensibly stupid character
American Hustle is a funny and intriguing crime comedy and David O'Russell's best film in years, 5/5.
The Anonymous Critic.
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