Review: American Hustle

Sony Pictures Releasing

American Hustle essentially unites director/writer David O. Russell's last two films, The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook. The combined cast includes Amy Adams and Christian Bale from Fighter and Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence from Silver Linings. Not to mention new-comers to Russell's casting, Jeremy Renner and Louis C.K. among others. In this way, you could say both films were a build up to the overwhelmingly acclaimed American Hustle.

But beyond the casting, we see Russell perform at his finest and witness a fantastic development of the kind of characters and storytelling we've seen him working towards these past few years. Both Fighter and Silver Linings feature characters at once at odds with those around them and uncertain about themselves and what they are trying to achieve. In the same way, Hustle features a cast of random characters on a mission that is more about proving something to themselves rather than any monetary or physical gain.

Sony Pictures Releasing

Bale plays real-life conman Irving Rosenfeld who is forced along with his lover and "business partner," Sydney Prosser (Adams), to work with the FBI and agent Richard DiMaso (Cooper) to bring down a corrupt politician (Renner) and a host of other men in exchange for immunity. What results is at once an entertaining crime "thriller," comedy, and drama wrapped all up into one. Russell's films are generally referred to as "genre defying," and that is definitely true in this case. Like his characters, his films march to their own beat.

And in this case, very literally. Like many other films, Hustle opens with a flash forward sequence as we are introduced to recognizable actors, but we have no idea who they are as characters. Then we flash back to get Irving's back-story narrated by Irving himself, and then we get the same treatment with Sydney. In both cases, these are self-made individuals even if their strategies are less than legal. The film then progresses past the point where the film began, and after this moment, Irving and Sydney's characters both take a different turn. In this way, Irving and Sydney form the crux of the film (even though we get a similar look at Richard's semi-crazy determination to be a recognized agent) as individuals forced to play-act their entire lives and essentially become different people in order to be successful.

Sony Pictures Releasing

A little while ago I watched the Hollywood Reporter's annual "director's round-table" which included Russell and other notables such as Alfonso Cuaron and Steve McQueen. A large portion of the discussion ended up focusing on the beginning of each director's career, and each director, almost unanimously, mentioned how it took them a while to find what they were truly good at and what kind of stories they wanted to tell. Russell in particular said how he thinks he just recently discovered his niche. Over all, it seems that each director went through a period of having to make movies, TV shows, etc, that did not feel right, were not what they wanted to do.

Knowing this, the change that Irving and Sydney under go in terms of motivation and goals finds its connection to reality. At the same time, its interesting to see how much they enjoy their illegal success in the film and also how the pacing, editing, and structure of the story follows the emotions of the characters rather than the events. Even though the film is based on actual events, the film obviously does not place its value on some "based on a true story" scenario. In fact, the film snidely begins with the title "some of this actually happened" instead. The emphasis is put on the drive and desperation these characters feel to cover up their true selves in order to be accepted. Just like how Irving performs an elaborate process of a comb-over to hide his bald head and Sydney adopts a British accent. They do what they have to to succeed at first, but eventually that becomes too much to handle

Sony Pictures Releasing

Besides this meaningful core to the film, there's plenty to enjoy. The 70's setting provides endless entertaining clothes, hair styles, and a genius soundtrack. Lawrence as Rosalyn, Irving's loud, unpredictable wife, provides most of the laughs, and it's obvious she's having a great time in the role. Louis CK as Stoddard, Richard's FBI boss, is hilarious as well even though CK is basically playing himself, but that's what makes him funny (I'm a huge fan of Louis CK). Of course, none of the humor would be possible without Russell's knack for creating seriously funny dialogue and ridiculous but endearing characters.

And over all, the cast is phenomenal. Bale proves once again that he can morph his body, voice, etc, into any character, and the rest of the cast puts on a very fine show as well. But as good as everyone is, I'm thinking that American Hustle's main chance at winning awards will be through Russell's directing and writing. This film definitely deserves it over any film he's made to date. Still, this year has been very impressive for cinema, so it'll be a tight race at the Oscars and Golden Globes, but Russell stands a good chance.