American Hustle

I was excited about this movie from the moment it was first announced. I love most of David O'Russell's movies, especially Silver Linings Playbook. So how was American Hustle? Well, it may not be my favorite movie of his but it was still pretty good.

American Hustle is loosely based on a true story. It's about a con man named Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale in a fat suit) and his partner Sydney Porter (Amy Adams). They end up being forced to work for a crazy FBI agent, Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). It takes them into the dangerous world of politicians, the mafia, etc. The stakes are high and Irving's wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) could very well screw things up if they're not careful.

First lets start off with the best thing about this movie- the acting. David O'Russell tends to use a lot of the same actors in all of his movies. I really have no problem when a director does this as long as the movie is well made and the performances are good, as is the case here. In this he brings together an amazing cast including Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence (who David worked with on Silver Linings Playbook) as well as Christian Bale and Amy Adams (who both appear in The Fighter). There's also a few other actors in this that I recognized from Silver Linings Playbook, but I can't remember their names.

I must say, David O'Russell knows how to get incredible performances out of his actors. I really can't think of a bad performance in this. The only thing is I felt Jennifer Lawrence was a bit too young for the role of Rosalyn. She gave a great performance don't get me wrong, but it took awhile to get use to. Anyway, I can see why the cast is getting nominated for all these awards.

Another thing I loved was the look of the movie. Everything from the costumes to the way the movie was shot really made you feel like you were in the 70's. At the beginning of the movie when they show the production company logos they used the original logos from that time period. I thought that was pretty cool. Even the soundtrack fits in perfectly.

Now onto the not so good things. There weren't too many but one of them was I felt that the story itself wasn't the best. It wasn't bad necessarily but the pacing was weird and the editing could've been a little tighter. The ending also was weak. I could see what was going to happen from early on in the film. It would've been nice to see a few surprises thrown in there.

I was debating for awhile on how to rate this movie. Normally I'd take points off if the story wasn't great, but the performances more than made up for it.

A lot of people are saying that American Hustle could pull off an upset and win big at the Oscars. To be honest, I hope it doesn't even though I liked the movie. Do I think it deserved to be nominated for all these awards? Sure why not. Should it win Best Picture? No. I still think 12 Years a Slave should get that. I could go on forever about my feelings about the Oscars, but I'll spare you from listening to another one of my rants. For now anyway.

American Hustle is one of those movies that you go and see strictly for the acting. Despite some flaws, it's still a movie that I highly recommend.

My Rating: 8/10