A good not great film

Rating: 8/10 (1 February 2014)

With all the hype surrounding American Hustle, people are going into it expecting the next Citizen Kane and trust me, it is far from perfect. The plot is ridiculously hard to follow, but the acting is what is this film's saving grace. Forget a plot, it doesn't exist with this film. There is no clear cut storyline and anything that matriculates to something remotely close to a plot is left hanging high and dry. However, this is not a bad thing. To its credit, Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper are impeccably cast and Amy Adams shines in a career high point role. Jennifer Lawrence is wildly entertaining in this film despite being miscast in a role that was clearly geared towards a much older actress. The real star throughout this film is Jeremy Renner. His performance is being criminally underrated by critics and audiences alike, in my opinion and deserves some sort of recognition especially with a heart breaking scene between him and Bale at the end of the film.
Overall, this is an entertaining and brilliantly directed film that seems to have thrown out its script in the middle of production. Either way, American Hustle is entertainingly flawed despite the ridiculous hype behind it. David O. Russell directs the hell out of every scene and chews through each frame with electrifying camera-work and brilliant acting which keeps this film from being a total wash. This is a great film but has garnered some pretty ridiculous raves from critics of all sorts where The Wolf of Wall Street (which is a better film in my opinion) has not. But, for what it's worth, check this film out, you won't be disappointed.