Film

Film Review: American Hustle

You’ve seen the bus adverts. You’ve seen the 80’s styling of the film with wild hair and funky clothing. You’ve seen Jennifer Lawrence is in it and that’s really good right? The real problem I assume most people suffered from pre-movie was what the film was really all about. I mean the title doesn’t inspire any decent theories as to what it could be about: I had always amused hustling was some form of illegal street deal in a side alley of any American city and not associated with the suavely dressed big budget line-up that were pasted onto the adverts.

The plot turns out to be slightly confusing if you hadn’t researched the F.B.I operations between 1979 and 1983 page on Wikipedia. It is based on the ABSCAM (Arab Scam) operation in the early 1980’s which revolved around capturing corrupt governors in New Jersey with something involving an Arab Sheik.

The film starts with the union of Irving Rosenfield (A rather portly Christian Bale) and Sydney Prosser (Wavy-haired Amy Adams) into a scam loan company. Irving is intelligent and shown to have been in the ‘hustle’ game for a long time, smashing windows when he was a child purely because his dad was a glazier.He also has an estranged Ex wife Rosalyn who is played by Jennifer Lawrence. She is slightly on the loopy side because Irving is always away pulling scams and chasing ladies. Sydney is also intelligent but is a good addition because she is very quick witted while pulling scams. She also pulls a British accent as part of the scam: I believe that this severely hinders her role because instead of showing her acting talent she is restricted by always having to pull a fake accent.

That part was nice and straight-forward, now it starts to get a bit hazy. The FBI arrest them and they are caught by FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). He promises not to arrest the duo if they participate in taking down corrupt politicians.This involves a fake Arab Sheikh (played by a friend of Irving) to claim he has a lot of money that could help revitalise New Jersey. This mainly attracts the attention of Camden Mayor Polito (Jeremy Renner), an All-American good guy who the average-man-on-the-street just adores. Irving and Richie try to bribe Polito under the guise that they will be allowed those tasty land allowances that everybody wants to build a casino. Richie is too keen and blows it. They try again, scathing close with New Jerseys main Mafia Boss who almost disproves the Sheikh as a fake. They eventually film several governors taking

bribes including Polito, which eventually crushes his career and the FBI celebrates, Hurrah!

A final plot twist at the end (no spoilers) leaves a dull taste at the end of the film. The Story is rather complicated, not in an entirely clever sort of way, just in a too over its head kind of way. The acting on the other hand is what drives this film. All the characters slot into their roles really well, especially Jennifer Lawrence who fits with the deranged housewife act perfectly. Although I feel Amy Adams was a bit weak as a lead, she still presented the shy character of Sydney with some muster.

Overall the story isn’t great, but the all-star cast is what drives it. I had no idea what an American Hustle was before watching the film, now I assume it has something to do with Big hair, 80’s fashion and a copious amount of revealing dresses.

Overall I give this a seven and a half out of ten.

 

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