The hustle is not what you think it is

Rating: 8/10 (23 March 2014)

THE GOOD: performances, technical values, several good scenes. THE BAD: weak narrative, worst overuse of classic rock songs since "Elizabethtown".
Now that the award season is over, maybe we can move past the hype, the anti-hype, the plants, and the trolls, and have an actual discussion of "American Hustle".
David O. Russel's trait is tragicomically focusing on characters and relationships with their families, both real and surrogate (similar to Alexander Payne and Paul Thomas Anderson), and how their particular psychological issues affect those around them (a la Woody Allen). What sets him apart is that his characters' relationships are dynamic, fluid, changing. For "American Hustle", he attempts to marry this to a riff on "Goodfellas".
The result: while ostensibly being a fast-paced, witty, sprawling semi-biographical tale about cops, robbers, politicians, and scams in the 70s, with very stylized directing and boiling tension, it really is something else. Russell focuses on two themes, the first being how its characters deceive themselves and others, carrying facades, multiple identities, double-relationships, hypocrisies, and false beliefs about themselves - all while striving for attention and recognition. This is started with the first shot, that of a character assembling his daily false appearance. The second theme is about characters vying for power, alternating between becoming the lead player and secondary players. When they are secondary characters, they blend into the background, sulk, form new alliances, and strike back. Russell gets great performances from his actors as they navigate these dynamics, with Amy Adams perhaps getting the heaviest work-out.
What we get is almost two movies, going back and forth. We have some clever, well-made scenes of a con set up and its dangerous potential aftermath, and then some artfully crafted scenes where the characters bond, boil up, and fall apart. Russell rarely succeeds in getting these two movies to work together, and when transitioning, tries to throw in some stylish moves. Some of these work well, at other times he makes some awkward decisions, particularly with an overuse of the soundtrack. I liked the movie, but it would often disengage me, and I was wondering if we had arrived at the end. Some scenes felt repetitive. I am not certain is the disjointed narrative is due to the editing, or it is due to Russell re-writing a different screenplay.
There are more pluses and minuses. The wardrobe and set design are outstanding. However, Russell is less successful at portraying southern New Jersey (Camden is essentially East Philadelphia, but is portrayed as Newark/Western New York) than he was at portraying e.g. Boston and Philadelphia in his recent movies.
There are several unforgettable scenes in this movie (e.g. Adams' character's seductions of Cooper's character, the mobster interview with the fake sheik, some of Jennifer Lawrence's character's tirades of unaccountability). If only it had been glued better together.