Pass the Popcorn review

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2014)

American Hustle is the fictionalized retelling of the real-life FBI operation called 'ABSCAM', which ran during the late 70s/early 80s, and which result was the conviction of one U.S. senator and six members of the U.S. House of Representatives – they were sentenced for accepting bribes from a FBI agent who was posing as a sheikh. During the investigation, the FBI were aided by a convicted con artist, named Melvin Weinberg. A film adaptation of this event was originally planned in the early 80s, but it failed to reach the big screen up until 2013, when David O. Russell sat in the director's chair and gave the world a very loose adaptation of the story – so loose that the opening title card in the movie says only that 'some of this actually happened'.
Set in the late 70s, American Hustle follows a pair of con artists/lovers – Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) – who ran a small con operation. One day they get arrested by the FBI and are soon given a choice, by the young and idealistic agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Copper), who says he'll let them go, if they help him perform 4 white collar busts. Irving and Sydney reluctantly accept their offer, and make a plan which involves a made up Arab sheikh, and which will hopefully attract other con artists for DiMaso to arrest.
American Hustle is like a postcard from the golden age of Hollywood, it reeks of old Scorsese movies (Goodfellas comes to mind first), and while others may consider American Hustle a rip off because of this, I found this movie to be a stylish, beautiful throwback to a time when mainstream movies were somewhat better than today. In this movie, the director David O. Russell collaborates with almost everyone he has collaborated before: Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence starred in his critically acclaimed, but in my opinion somewhat flawed, Silver Linings Playbook, and Christian Bale and Amy Adams starred in The Fighter. These casting choices are amazing, since everyone fits their characters and roles perfectly. Christian Bale, who has (once again) undergone incredible body transformations in preparation for his role, is memorable and great as the con artist Irving Rosenfeld; Bradley Cooper is magnificent in portraying the FBI agent Richie DiMaso and his troubled personality; and Amy Adams is absolutely adorable in the "double accent/double character" role she plays. Even Jeremy Renner, who had not previously collaborated with Russell, is perfect in portraying the sleazy, but likable Mayor Carmine Polito. Only Jennifer Lawrence's role, that of Irving Rosenfeld's wife Rosalyn, didn't really stick with me, since her character seems rather formulaic.
In one instance, during the shooting of the movie, David O. Russell said to Christian Bale "Christian, I hate plots. I am all about characters, that's it". Which is a rather strange thing to say since some people, from what I have read on the internet, had problems with the characters themselves, meaning they couldn't engage with them. And I must say – that is very true, sometimes it is hard to empathize with the characters (since all of them have some distinct unlikeable traits) and this may be a problem for some people because the movie is over two hours long. As for me, I haven't had such problems, but I still disagree with Mr. Russell, since I am all about the style and the old school way in which this movie is told, rather than the characters. Although, there is one thing in the movie that left me disappointed, and that was the ending, which felt dull and underwhelming. I must say, in the end, I felt somewhat hustled.
Rating: 8/10 Read more reviews at http://passpopcorn.com/