Good, but no Oscar

Rating: 9/10 (19 March 2014)

FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) convinces Irving (Christian Bale) and Sydney aka Edith - Prosser (Amy Adams) to run a con on Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) because he feels the Mayor is dirty. Later this scenario is expanded to include some members of Congress. And, still later the MOB gets involved. Oh oh!
While watching for the first half hour when nothing really happens except to get us to know that Richie and Edith run cons and make a lot of money, I couldn't help being mesmerized by seeing if Edith's breasts (no bra) would pop out of the thin bands of cloth covering them. This went on for quite a while. They didn't, but I focused anyway.
This was nominated for Best Picture. Did I agree? Not really because this should have been seamless and it wasn't. It was okay, but the real winners in here were Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence (Rosalyn, Richie's wife). Not to say that Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper weren't good, they were but nothing special (no Oscars for them, eh?). I don't think this movie would have been as good as it was if Adams and Lawrence were not in it. They were the breaths of fresh air for me. They made everything make sense when this meandered a bit in places.
There seemed to be an obsession with hair. Richie had the worst comb-over of all comb-overs and why they went with this was a mystery. I felt like screaming at him, "get a wig or go bald" as either one of those choices would have been better. I kept waiting for another character to brush his head in a friendly gesture. And, then there is Mayor Carmine's hairdo. It was an imitation of Steven Van Zandt's (Silvio in the Sopranos TV show) pompadour. When Jeremy Renner was on screen all I saw was his hair. As for Jeremy Renner himself I felt he felt somewhat out of place not being in a bomb suit or combat dress with an assault rifle in his hands. But, he did a good job as did everyone.
Humor was attempted by Richie constantly asking his boss Stoddard Thorsen (Louis C.K.) for money, a plane and hotel space to further the sting on the Mayor and the Congressmen. Oh, yes, an Arab Shiek (Michael Pena) was also involved to look like the sting had impeccable backing. The confrontations between Richie and Thorsen were not funny to me, but this is the closest they came to humor. Pity.
The reason I said this was not seamless was because too many of the stars in here had too much screen time and a lot of dialogues so it was hard to concentrate - as we normally would have - on the Star of the movie. They were all- of- them, the stars. See?
Oh, Robert DeNiro had a cameo in here. (9/10)
Violence: Yes, not much though. Sex: No. Nudity: No, but they came close. Language: Yes, but not too much.