Good, but ultimately a bit disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (15 January 2014)

David O.Russell's last 3 films have all had something in common. They are clichéd and formulaic, yet the individual aspects are much greater than the whole. 'The Fighter' was fun and grounded by a great Bale performance, 'Silver Linings Playbook' hid under the guise of being ambitious and original whilst giving us a horrendously out-of- character and contrived last act. American Hustle is somewhere in between these two.
It is consistent, yet runs far too long. After an hour it runs out of steam and just becomes repetitive and derivative of other crime dramas we have seen a million times before. Yet like O.Russell's other recent efforts, the acting is top-notch.
The performances, especially by Lawrence, Adams and Renner are all great, yet the director does not seem to have confidence in the story or the dialogue, and instead uses star power to cover up this fact. For example, Jennifer Lawrence is much too young for this role, and even though she gave a great performance, she just looks out of place. The same goes for Renner, again, good performance, yet the Mayor should have been portrayed by a man closer to late 50's or 60's, do they expect us to believe that Jeremy Renner would have 5 grown up children when he barely looks a day over 35?. O.Russell's indulgence is most obvious in his casting of Robert DeNiro in a tiny, unimportant part as if to say "Hey look, Travis Bickle is in my film for a bit". This casting choice is just distracting and totally takes the audience out of the film. If you need a big actor to show a character's importance, then your not making an in-depth character.
However there are some good details in the film. Costuming and the set- designs are nice (Even though they over-indulge in Amy Adams' V-necks). The music is great (But it being the 70's, it would be hard to screw it up) and some of the humour works well (though a lot falls flat and tries too hard).
Over-all, I liked the film, but was disappointed as a whole. It is in no-way a bad film and it will definitely hold your attention. However,it was not original, and despite being set in a world of excess, did not have interesting cinematography like peers 'Boogie Nights' or 'Goodfellas'. O.Russell needs to be more ambitious and creative next time, because at the moment he seems content at just making better-than-average, non-challenging and formulaic films, yet not truly being brave enough to make something new, risky or innovative.