American Hustle is only as great as its director and cast, which are fortunately outstanding. David O. Russell, director of Silver Linings Playbook and The Fighter, mixes the casts of his previous movies in undoubtedly the greatest ensemble performance of the year. Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, and Christian Bale all live up to their names and reputations with Bale standing out the most. However, the best of the movie ends with them.
Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) is a con man practically from birth with a pudgy-belly and a comb-over but makes up for it with an earned and possibly naïve confidence. Irving is fully aware that he may be conning himself into living a precariously happy life in order to survive another day and voices that concern to the audience. Irving is joined in the narration by his lover and partner in crime, Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams). They are, however, caught and recruited to take down increasingly high profile targets by over-eager FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). The relationships of these characters are compressed and pulled about with every stressful operation and every actor is utilized to their full worth. Bale shows great range during Irving’s emotional growth and excellent delivery in his rage and charm. Adams is convincingly seductive with an attention holding plunging neckline throughout the movie. She is as cunning as she is sexy, yet organic, human, and vulnerable. Bale and Adams have the chemistry on stage to carry most of the film with their turbulent love affair and uncomfortable situations their ordeal pushes them into. Smaller characters played by actors Louis C.K. and Robert De Niro also excel under Russell’s direction. The cast plays off each other well and sell the movie by themselves.
The film never quite commits to being one type of movie. It is rather alchemy of a comedy, a drama, a crime thriller, and a character piece. Many hilarious moments come from the way characters interact with each other rather than situational, dry, or tongue-in-cheek humor. All moments tend to hit well. The drama comes with the many shades of truly grey morality within the people and the situations. Irving is most conflicted when one of the men the FBI seeks to take down is Camden, New Jersey Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) –who is targeted simply because he is desperate, but is otherwise a sincerely good man doing his best for his people. The enthusiastic impatience of Agent DiMaso pushes Irving to perform morally grey entrapment where Irving cons politicians and mobsters for his family’s own interest. While compelling on many levels, the themes tend to get lost in each other. The one tone it does keep consistent is the convincingly American 1970s setting with aesthetic crowd-pleasers aplenty. Period music is occasionally used but in all the right places.
Partly due to the movie’s lack of commitment to a tone, it loses focus at certain times. While Irving and Sydney’s dynamic carried much of the movie, the parts where that relationship gets muddled without elaboration dragged on. The inevitable payoff of a crime thriller is there, but despite over 2 hours of film, doesn’t get quite the build-up or final conflict to excel the film any further.
American Hustle still does what few other movies are able to do in making this alchemy work. It makes up for its flaws in focus with an outstanding cast and stands to be a contender in the upcoming awards season.
VERDICT: 4/5
Leather Wing Media 