Unapologetically a capital-M Movie, but there's a real script and real acting inside the shiny package

Rating: 8/10 (14 February 2014)

"American Hustle" is an unapologetically glamorous, indulgent riff on classic Hollywood ensemble romps, set in the lately-resurgent so-uncool- they're-cool-again 1970s. Nearly every role, from the headliners to the bit parts to the cameos, are filled by some of the hottest, most critically-beloved actors of their generation, and they clearly relish rocking their ironically unhip (and therefore hip) comb-overs and ginormous glasses and outrageous blazers and tawdry-sexy dresses. There's no denying that the cinematography and the casting and the 70s- hits soundtrack are tailored to a tee. It screams, "Yes, I am a Big Hollywood Movie," and it knows it can pull that look off and we won't roll our eyes or look away. Very well, some of us will; there are those, in the run-up to the Oscars, who are calling it Oscar bait, suggesting that it's cynically ticking off the boxes the Academy wants to see ticked: Jennifer Lawrence, check; stars "selflessly" obfuscating themselves behind faux-ugly makeup, check; a throwback to a time today's Oscar voters are nostalgic for, check. The movie is all the more fun to watch because it has these things. But it has more than that, plenty enough to justify the awards it's gotten and the awards it will get. It's not the main plot, which is Capers 101 with some predictable twists. It's also not the gray areas or the subtexts, which by the end are surprisingly black and white and cut and dry. The extra mile is the characterizations, huge and clear-cut personalities that are also finely-detailed and reveal new layers with each scene. Everyone is flawed, but everyone is well-intentioned, and it's hard not to like all of them even as they cultivate sleazy, selfish dislikability. The characters' tangled relationships and personal battles reduce the 200 million dollar stakes of the principle con to a secondary concern, or perhaps it is more accurate to say that they give the con meaning beyond the merely monetary. In this, screenwriters David O. Russell (who also directed) and Eric Warren Singer hit the same notes that define the Coen brothers' films, except that Russell and Singer have a softer, more sentimental touch. It's "American Hustle"'s above-average writing, and the well-above-average acting required to sell such a script, that the Academy has recognized, and not just the movie's in-vogue surface qualities and shiny package.