Good, But With Its Flaws

Rating: 8/10 (14 March 2015)

I think a lot of the reviews have some validity, both the good and the bad, but I think most of them are way too critical, and probably too praiseworthy, for that matter.
For me, I thought Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence were stellar. Carmine, played by Jeremy Renner, was a bit like a doe with his sad blue eyes. The plot was pretty weak, but Russell apparently said he was more interested in capturing character interaction, rather than a strong storyline. I think he fell a bit short in capturing that. I felt as though I wanted to be more involved with Irving's guilt towards Carmine, but Renner's performance was just a bit too weak for that to happen. In fact, all these connections between the actors seemed to fall a bit short in intertwining with each other, which is too bad because Bale's character was really awesome.
I wasn't impressed with the cinematography, however, wardrobe, hair, props, were pretty awesome. But that shouldn't be the thing that holds the movie together.
All in all, it was a decent escapist movie, but if you want a true character study done right, check out Revanche, or The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. If you want to escape into the stereotyped party scene of the '70s watch Boogie Nights or Blow. If you've seen those, American Hustle might be a good fix.