Empire of greed

Rating: 10/10 (20 February 2014)

New York City, 1978: Irving (Christian Bale) is a con man: cunning, smart enough and aware of how far he can go. In Sydney (Amy Adams) he has found a partner who can take his efficiency to the next level. Until FBI agent Richard (Bradley Cooper) turns up and threatens to bust their lucrative fraud business. So they agree to help him catch bigger fish so he can let them go. And off goes a ride that will see politicians busted, the mafia getting involved, relationships and marriages shattered, dreams destroyed and others transformed. In David O. Russell's film, everyone cons everyone else, he unleashes such a whirlwind of greed and hubris and treachery and sheer survival instinct that not only the viewer's head starts spinning but with it the entire film. The film is set in a grotesque 1970s universe that is absurdly exaggerated as it is atmospherically true. American Hustle is human comedy and Greek tragedy, brightly colored comic strip and panoramic tableau of an era, absurd caricature and warmly colored character tale. Everything is way over the top and down to earth, wildly ridiculous and stunningly realistic at the same time, a wild and colorful feast of a film that has the addictive power – and look – of an excellent narcotic, the embarrassingly inescapable pull of an orgy that goes way too far but which one cannot stop. Christian Bale is breath-taking as Irving, overweight, full of swagger and even fuller of fear, Cooper turns the ambitious out-of-control cop into a truly scary figure, Adams walks the thin line between deep vulnerability and excessive self-confidence. But the film's true miracle is Jennifer Lawrence as Irving' wife: desperate, hysterical, full of fear and a vague longing that explodes into one of the most screwed up characters in film history. American Hustle shows – and makes the audience feel – what happens when greed, personal desires and inferiority complexes react. It is like a weird psychedelic trip that leaves you confused. And happy.
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