Intoxicating and dangerous

Rating: 9/10 (3 April 2014)

Watching American Hustle one of the things that truly got to me was how back in the day when J. Edgar Hoover ran the FBI nobody like Bradley Cooper's character could ever have gotten employed in that agency. Let alone have the FBI use someone like Christian Bale as a pawn in a sting. Hoover was such a stickler for straight arrow types that Cooper could never have gotten in the door. Of course Hoover also never went after organized crime, but I can't help thinking that his quirks about dress and deportment weren't completely bad after seeing American Hustle.
American Hustle is the story of the Abscam scandal and with a lot of poetic license it's an account of how it was almost an accident that several members of Congress were ensnared with bribery charges.
Our protagonist is Christian Bale who plays a low level conman, but one who is good. He's got as a sidekick Amy Adams who affects an English accent as part of their modus operandi. He and Adams are both trapped by FBI agent Bradley Cooper who in his own way is as much con artist as they are. Instead of arresting them, he admires the way they work and turns them into his own operatives.
It's impossible to proceed with further plot description. The investigation just gets away from any control and instead of mobsters they're taking down members of Congress who are bribed to get citizenship for phony Arab sheik. In the end Bale has to use some of the techniques employed in The Sting to get out from under.
American Hustle is about a world that is intoxicating and dangerous. Bale and Cooper are evenly matched pair of allied antagonists. Amy Adams sure gets her innings in. There's also Jennifer Lawrence whom you will not forget as Bale's wife who with her own selfish dizziness may get them all killed. All four were nominated for acting Oscars and not one of them won. In fact 10 nominations went to American Hustle and it did not take home a winner.
All four of these players sublimate their own personalities into their characters to a degree rarely seen. Christian Bale in most of his films does that to a degree I've not seen since Paul Muni. But that all four did here is a tribute to director David O. Russell.
Like the Scorsese classics Goodfellas and Casino, American Hustle changes all the names so a lot of license can be used. And of course with Robert DeNiro playing a small, but unforgettable role as mob boss, the identification is complete.
American Hustle is a film not to be missed.