hustle, bustle and con

Rating: 9/10 (25 May 2014)

I had never heard of the Abscam scandal before "American Hustle" got released. As a newbie, and understanding that the movie is a fictionalized account, I was impressed. This collection of people conning each other blows the mind. Practically every character in the movie is a despicable person in some way or another: the swindlers, the politicians, etc. Like "The Wolf of Wall Street", it shows a world of unabashed fraud, packed with people who have no qualms about anything that they do.
I found "American Hustle" to be a good movie. Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Jeremy Renner put on fine performances. Some of Lawrence's scenes made me feel as if I was walking on eggshells. The intricate corruption that Abscam exposed seems more relevant than ever amid the continuing economic slump. You'll probably like the movie.
James Zogby of the Arab-American Institute noted a major omission: because the FBI had a man pose as a sheikh in the effort to arrest the corrupt politicians, it pushed a negative image of Arabs.