'Hustle' tells 70s/80s Abscam story

Rating: 6/10 (9 January 2014)

Director David Russell and writer Eric Singer come together to tell the true story of the Abscam sting operation that was set up by the FBI in the late 70s/early 80s. It led to the conviction of a lot of politicians in New Jersey.
Never heard of it? Neither had I before seeing this movie, but anyone living back then probably has heard of it since it was apparently national news headlines at the time. Born after 1980? Then yeah.....you probably will need to Wikipedia it.
Christian Bale plays Irving Rosenfeld, a N.J. con-artist who meets a retired stripper from New Mexico, Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) and together they form a partnership scam and a romantic relationship. Sydney Prosser pretends to be a British Lady Edith Greensly and together they run a fake loan office and sell forged paintings. While Irving is romantically involved with Sydney, he is actually married to a sharp tongued feisty woman named Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence). They live together with her son from a previous marriage, Danny , who Irving has adopted. We soon realize that the only reason Irving ever married Rosalyn was because he felt sorry for her having to raise a child alone. Irving doesn't want to go run off with Sydney because he is too attached to his son Danny and would feel terrible leaving him alone with his mother, who he feels is completely irresponsible as a parent. The other reason Irving stays: look the word 'manipulation' up in the dictionary and you should find a picture of Rosalyn underneath! As time goes on, Irving and Sydney get caught by Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) an FBI agent from Long Island. Richie gives them two choices: 1.jail time or 2. help the FBI in their sting operation uncovering corruption in the NJ politics; they agree to help the FBI. Surprisingly, agent DiMaso never discovered Sydney's true identity (apparently she had expert connections with getting records falsified), so she has to continue pretending she's British and talking with a terrible phony English accent throughout the majority of the film. Jeremy Renner plays the Camden N.J. Mayor Carmine Polito who is being targeted in the sting operation. Michael Pena plays Paco who is pretending to be an Arab Sheik Abdullah. Robert De Niro plays Victor Tellegio, a mafia boss. Louis C.K. plays Stoddard Thorsen, DiMaso's boss at the FBI.
Personally I felt some of the scenes with the heavy empty dialogue should have been edited down in the film ( I would say a good 30 minutes in total could have been cut). I'm talking about the kind of dialogue that you usually find in the very first unedited draft of a script, or at the first stage performance for an Improvisation Level A class. For example:
Bob: You know what I'm talking about?
Eddie: No, what are you talking about?
Bob: I think you know what I'm talking about.
Eddie: Really? Because I really don't think I do.
Bob: Oh c'mon. You know what I'm talking about!
Eddie: Bob, I don't know what you're talking about!
Bob:How many times do I have to tell you what I'm talking about?
Eddie:Maybe ten times.
Bob: Eddie! c'mon please...you know what I'm talking about, okay?
My mother also saw the film and she seemed to like it more than I did. She said she wouldn't have edited anything out and she didn't seem to feel it was too long. I, on the other hand, felt myself dozing off during the parts that didn't have Rosalyn. It could have been partly due to the fact that she instantly recognized the story from the 70s, while I didn't.
I thought all the actors did a great job, but I think Jennifer Lawrence's character is the one that kept me awake, although she was only in like 15-20 minutes in total of the film.
I thought that the Production Designer Judy Becker did an excellent job creating a New Jersey from the 1970s, together with great costume choices made by the Costume Designer Michael Wilkinson. I also liked the original score composed by Danny Elfman and the choice of songs for the soundtrack. I thought that Katherine Gordon, department head hair stylist and others working in her department did a nice job on the hair. They got the home perms for men, the comb-over, the long hair, the wild perm for Amy Adams that became more popular around the early 80s, and Jennifer Lawrence's swept bouffant (in the late 70s the Edwardian/Gibson girl style started to become very popular), and curled updos. and I thought that Evelyne Noraz, makeup department head and other working in the makeup department did a nice job with authentic 1970s makeup (they choice a very a natural look for makeup, lots of earth tones, very light---you can see this with Amy Adams -you can see all her freckles, any sun damaged skin, and every wrinkle through the light powder foundation which is very appropriate for the time. Her legs weren't airbrushed and they show her bruises on her legs (probably from her time as a stripper?). To get an idea of what i'm talking about with natural makeup, just watch the movie 'Five Easy Pieces' with Jack Nicholson from the early 70s. Also enjoyed the whole nail polish story, the rotten/sweet smell.
And it's true that all the best nail polishes have something nasty in them!
side note: I found it ironic that when I got home from the theater and turned on the TV, the news was about N.J. Gov. Chris Christie and the Fort Lee Scandal.
6/10