American Hustle

If you're anything like me, American Hustle is not the movie you were expecting.

That's not to say it's a bad movie. It's actually quite a good movie with a great cast and a pretty engaging story.

The trouble is, it's billed as basically Ocean's Eleven but set in the 70s. Woooooah, look out, Christian Bale is wearing a hairpiece. Wooooooah, Bradley Cooper has a perm. Lololol.

The reality is that it's closer to a flick called The Bank Job that was released a couple years back. But seeing as nobody actually remembers that movie, this was kind of a dumb point to make.



So the year is 1978 and Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) has been making a comfortable living as a fake art dealer for quite some time. He's even managed to get himself a partner, Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), who is just as crafty as he.

Pictured: one crafty pair.

Things go belly up, however, when the pair are caught by the FBI. Specially, they're caught by Richi DiMaso (Bradley Cooper).

The pair are offered a deal. If they help catch just three other phony art dealers, the FBI will let the pair of them go on their merry, slightly crooked way.

And smoke their crooked cigars.

What happens is what happens when you start adding unstable elements into a small, stable team. The dynamics change and things go a bit wonky when DiMaso gets headstrong and tries to go after bigger and bigger targets.

This isn't the kind of story where there are clearly defined "good guys" and "bad guys." Everybody is ambiguous and that fact becomes only more apparent as the film goes on.

It was the 70s - lots of stuff was ambiguous.

One of the best things is seeing how the dynamics between Irving, Sydney and DiMaso keep shifting, each trying to struggle to be on top. While DiMaso risks career suicide, the cons begin to see they're risking much more.

The supporting cast, Jeremy Renner as a dodgy-but-well-meaning mayor, and Jennifer Lawrence as Irving's bored housewife, are just as crucial an element to the story as the main trio.

The trick is to not look directly at the suit OR hair.

You can't help but to feel for Renner's character, Carmine Polito,  who is genuinely likable and clearly wants to help his community using any means available.

The same can't be said for Lawrence's character, Rosalyn. The young mum is manipulative, unhappy, bored, and confused with what to do with her life. It's a great, funny character and Lawrence nails it.

IT'S A TRAP.

The pacing of American Hustle is strange, with a lot of time and energy put into the build up and even into a couple of red herrings. While there are a couple of  really funny moments, there is a lot more drama then I had expected. The end result was a strange Frankenstein monster of a movie.

It's definitely not a bad movie and all the actors put in outstanding performances, but adjust your expectation when you go to see it.

SuperbestfriendstimeYAY!

Three and a half stars.