do the Hustle

Rating: 10/10 (18 January 2014)

Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Jeremy Renner do the "American Hustle" in this 2013 film, directed by David O. Russell, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Singer.
It is 1978. Con artist and imprisoned Irving Rosenthal (Bale) and his partner Sydney (Adams) have to work with an FBI agent, Richie DiMaso (Cooper) to bring down white collar criminals in order to be free of all charges. Eventually. Richie and Irving are led to the rebuilding of Atlantic City into an east-coast Las Vegas, a project that will be rich with payoffs to politicians and investment scams. Irving, Sydney (known as Ethel in her British accent) and Richie get to work, meeting with the mayor of the city, Carmine Polito (Renner) who sincerely wants to put people back to work and bring in revenue for the city and state. Unfortunately, he seems to believe the end justifies the means and is willing to break the law to achieve his dream of a gambling mecca.
The situation goes from edgy to downright scary when the mob (led by Robert de Niro) comes to town to talk with the fake sheik (actually from Mexico) about making a $10 million investment.
This is an absolutely hilarious film with wonderful performances and bizarre situations. Part of the beginning is Christian Bale working on his hair, teasing, pasting on pieces, and then spraying. We're actually brought into the middle of a situation, and the film works back. We see Sydney's and Irving's stories, we see them meet and fall in love, and developing their various cons, fake loan sharking (charging $5000 to loan $50,000 but the mark never sees the $50,000) and a fake art scam.
We learn that Irving is married to Rosalyn (Lawrence) and he has adopted Rosalyn's son from her first marriage. For this reason, he is reluctant to leave her. The problem is, out in public, she has a tendency to drink too much and say too much.
Part of the charm of this film is the '70s atmosphere -- gold-dipped wall patterns, carpeting, heavy furniture, black and white photos of babies, the discos, Nehru jackets, bouffants, streaked hair, girdles, stereos, and the music: Bee Gees, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Billy Joel, Steely Dan, America, and Irving and Sydney's favorite throwback, Duke Ellington. I'll admit that I don't really remember the style dress Amy Adams wore throughout the film, cut down to her navel with part of each boob showing.
The film has lively, wild performances by Christian Bale, with a gut sticking out and horrid hair -- when a leading man, especially a handsome one, does that, it gets a lot of attention. But Bale follows through with a great performance. Adams is sexy and funny. Lawrence is hilarious. Some might say that she and Elizabeth Rohm, who plays the mayor's wife, are caricatures, but frankly, they were like a lot of women I've known. Jeremy Renner as the mayor is wonderful - sincere, naive, and a little low class. And Bradley Cooper as a man living with his mother and engaged to a girl from the neighborhood is fantastic as a no-boundaries FBI agent.
Just marvelous, particularly for my generation. I had a blast.