"American Hustle" has a lot of fun with a true story and makes us want to sing along.

Rating: 9/10 (21 December 2015)

According to Wikipedia, ".ABSCAM was a United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sting operation run from the FBI's Hauppauge, Long Island office in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The operation initially targeted trafficking in stolen property but was converted to a public corruption investigation." That investigation and its results form the basis for 2013's "American Hustle" (R, 2:18). But the film is only loosely based on the real-life story. The first thing on screen are the words: "Some of this actually happened." "American Hustle" stars Christian Bale as con man Irving Rosenfeld and Amy Adams as his girlfriend and partner-in-crime Sydney Prosser. Irving is running a small-time loan scam on New Jersey locals and doing pretty well, but business really takes off when Sydney gets involved, puts on a high-class British accent, starts calling herself Edith and portrays herself as well-connected with the banks in London. Personally and professionally, things go swimmingly for the pair, until they run into Bradley Cooper's FBI agent, Richie DiMaso, who entraps Irving and Sydney/Edith, and then forces them to work for him. As in real life, the undercover activities shift from targeting criminals to targeting politicians (trying to get them to take bribes).
That's about all of the similarities between "American Hustle" and ABSCAM. Director David O. Russell (who also directed Oscar-winners "Silver Linings Playbook" and "The Fighter" and brings together the best actors from each of those movies to this one) focuses his film on the fictional characters that he created along with co-writer Eric Singer. This allows the movie to have some fun with both the characters and the story. As Sydney/Edith says in a bit of narration referring to something she did early in the film, "There was a boldness about it. I didn't know where that boldness would take me, but I was gonna find out." That quote also sums up my feelings as I watched this movie.
Russell populates his story with a variety of colorful characters. Irving has a pot belly and an epic comb-over, but as Sydney says in a bit of narration, "There was a confidence that drew me to him." Irving's attitude is summed up with his quote: "We're all conning ourselves, in one way or another, just to get through life." Edith (who distracts her marks – and the audience members – with her revealing outfits) shows quite the aptitude for the con games they're playing, and she's a lot more comfortable than Irving with the higher-stakes stings that they're helping the FBI run. Meanwhile, Camden, New Jersey mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) seems well-meaning and gets things done, but isn't completely ethical in achieving those results.
Given the time period and the tone and style of this film, pretty early on it reminded me of a combination of two great 90s movies which also told stories set in the late 70s and early 80s - "Boogie Nights" and "Goodfellas". Then, when a song from the former showed up in this soundtrack and a major cast member from the latter showed up on the screen, the parallels felt even stronger. And, as "American Hustle" progressed, I also saw elements of "The Grifters" and "The Firm", two more excellent 90s films.
As with those movies, in "American Hustle", it's both fun and interesting to guess who's playing whom and how all the characters are going to fare when the story has run its course. It's also interesting to see whether the use of a phony Arab sheik (Michael Pena, playing a Mexican-American FBI agent playing a sheik) helps or hurts the cause, and how Irving's crazy wife (Jennifer Lawrence) plays into the equation. (Yes, he's married, even though he's @#$%ing Sydney). Throughout the film, and especially when they finally meet each other, Adams' and Lawrence's characters seem to be competing for the title of "Craziest Bitch in This Here Movie".
"American Hustle" features a smart and funny script, along with several award-worthy performances from basically every actor mentioned in this review. The soundtrack and use of music in this film are also pretty great! I loved the old, familiar songs, but I also heard a non-English version of "White Rabbit", and thoroughly enjoyed the short scene in which Jennifer Lawrence cleans her house while rocking out to the James Bond anthem "Live and Let Die"! If you appreciate great acting and like an entertaining story, you really should, regardless of whether you're an American, hustle on over to your computer and find this movie. "A"