The crazy half-heartedness of the seventies

Rating: 7/10 (20 February 2014)

Donna Summer was hot. Microwave ovens were new. Politicians were corrupt. Marriages were breaking up. Cleavages were revealing. (But were they really that revealing?) Yes, I'm talking about the seventies. 'American Hustle' is, above all, a portrait of that decade.
It's not just the music, the clothes and the hairdo's. It's the crazy half-heartedness of this decade, squeezed between the hippies of the sixties and the yuppies of the eighties, that's captured beautifully in this film. Everything seems messed up. Corrupt congressmen get busted by the FBI. The FBI gets conned by con men. The con men betray their friends to stay out of jail. Did anything go right in the seventies? Do we remember this decade for anything remarkable? Did anybody have any backbone? The answer from 'American Hustle' is clear. And it's negative.
I liked the film a lot. The story is very well-structured. It centres on small time crook Irving Rosefeld, who decides to snitch on his friend, Carmine Polito, a small town mayor with mafia connections, who eagerly accepts money from an Arab sheik who in reality is part of an FBI-setup. Sounds complicated, but it isn't really. To top it all off, there are some subplots about marital infidelity and FBI-infighting which are supporting the main storyline. I liked the way how the plots intertwine, when Irving's unfaithful wife almost destroys an FBI-operation because she can't keep her mouth shut.
All actors are very good, but I liked Jennifer Lawrence's performance best. She plays Irving's mindless and selfish wife Rosalyn, who refuses to divorce her husband. Her unpredictable behaviour and crazy remarks make her scenes really stand out.
Ten Oscar nominations is a few too many for this film, especially considering that 'The Wolf of Wall Street' got only half that number. But I wouldn't mind if it won an Oscar or two. Let's make that Jennifer Lawrence and David O. Russell.