Completely Enveloping and Fascinating, But Ever-So-Slightly Underwhelming.

Rating: 8/10 (3 January 2014)

Filthy, immense personalities with a shared lack of moral compass own the driver's seat in this lingering peek at a late-'70s government sting operation and the flawed individuals caught up in its net. While the titular hustle is, obviously, the driving force behind this film's plot, the lion's share of its effort is spent inspecting the players themselves, rendering each from a variety of different angles and lights. In fact, the first two acts concentrate almost exclusively on the cast, to the detriment of the heist itself - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just a different approach than I'd expected. Of course, that ratio is flipped on its head in time for the climax, when our slick set of con (wo)men abruptly realize they're in way over their heads and the audience lets out a collective gasp; "Oh, crap." Predictably, the A-list actors hit all of their notes with sly ease, with the best - Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence - completely disappearing into their roles. Poor Bale has transformed his body in this way so many times over the years - an enormous gut, meticulously bad combover and slumped posture epitomize this particular role - that it's hard to imagine he won't pay a steep price later in life. A few scenes are slower than they need to be, and the focus could stand to be a touch sharper, but without both indulgences this wouldn't be the film it is.