American Hustle
Last year I fell in love with a movie by David O. Russell. Silver Linings Playbook was a great movie about the craziness of finding love and the crazy people in it. This year, Mr. O. Russell is back with the good but not stellar American Hustle. I went into this movie with high expectations and throughout it I was curious as to whether I really wanted this movie to be good or if it was actually good. It was a movie made to live up to expectations and then once I made it through the entire length of the movie I thought “Well. That was something.” I’m not sure if the build up to the movie and the praise heaped upon it had built it up into something I had no realistic chance of enjoying but I digress.
American Hustle is the story of con men. Beginning with Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale), a brilliant con man who has built a life for himself defrauding people but being mostly harmless. He is smart, sexy unto himself and has a really intricate hairstyle. At a party he meets a equally cunning and seductive partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), who he falls for immediately and confesses his schemes to. Scared to death that she may run away forever, he is hopelessly and completely in love with her. Instead of ratting on him, she joins his con and as the wealthy British aristocat...I mean aristocrat “Lady Edith Greensly” and steps up his operation bringing in more money than either one of them could have hoped for. Unfortunately it also brings them into view of the FBI and Irving has to make a deal to work for wild FBI agent, Richie DiMaso (played by Bradley Cooper) to keep Sydney out of jail. DiMaso pushes them to a world of Jersey power-brokers and mafia that's as dangerous as it is enchanting. Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) is the passionate, volatile, New Jersey mayor who gets caught between the con-artists and Feds through his complete trust and friendship with Irving. Then there is Irving’s unpredictable wife Rosalyn (played by Jennifer Lawrence) who Irving loves but really only for her son and as a result he is stuck with her. DiMaso begins as a cop looking to make a name for himself but the case keeps getting bigger and bigger and he begins to fall for Edith (Adams) who allows herself to be fallen for. In the end, Irving has to play a dangerous game between Ritchie and the two loves of his life to someway find a way out of his own mess.
I liked Christian Bale and thought he did a great job keeping the movie going and all the plates spinning. The crime story, the FBI story, the wives story and the political corruption scandal story. For the most part, Bradley Cooper is there to throw wrenches into his operation but I never really feel like he poses a major threat to Irving or Sydney. Jennifer Lawrence is perhaps the most under utilized in the entire movie. She is captivating in every scene she appears in (as always) and perhaps owns the best scene in the movie as she dance/cleans her house to Wings and Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die”. The movie is a great collections of scenes and as a whole they make a good and entertaining movie. Please don’t think that I didn't enjoy it. I still think this is a better movie than The Wolf of Wall Street. It resonates on the same wave length though. It is a spyglass to the 70‘s and a story that makes itself seem smarter than the audience. Perhaps it is, I just didn’t get it and I didn’t want to. I enjoyed myself and left the theater happy to have spent the $11.50 I paid.
The most under appreciated performance in the movie is comedian Louie C.K. as Bradley Cooper’s superior officer in about title only. The scenes between DiMasso and Louie C.K. are smart, funny and entertaining. I just wish there had been more too it. I went into the movie thinking it was going to be something other than what is was. The trailer made me believe that Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale were confidants and that the con was all they were about. The live a large and lavish lifestyle and love 1970‘s style. Instead I was given this movie. It was like being set up on a blind date with a girl you have seen as a supermodel and then arriving to see a normal, attractive girl there. It isn’t bad and the girl is really pretty but you keep looking for the supermodel. You don’t want to, you want to see the beautiful girl in front of you who makes you smile and laugh and dance with.... but what happened to the supermodel? American Hustle is a fine movie and I can’t say that you wouldn’t be entertained by it. There is plenty to like but it feels like the soul from Silver Lining’s was sucked out and breathed into this movie but some was lost in the transfer. I still like the movie and would gladly repeat view it. American Hustle just conned me a little and maybe I’m still a little bitter about it. Should’ve known it was coming. This movie is filled with cons.
Mr. Unhappy Sez: As far as Best Picture goes, in the Unhappyverse “Her” is still the frontrunner but American Hustle entertains. I just think it does so by telling you that you should be entertained and not by actually entertaining you.
American Hustle is the story of con men. Beginning with Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale), a brilliant con man who has built a life for himself defrauding people but being mostly harmless. He is smart, sexy unto himself and has a really intricate hairstyle. At a party he meets a equally cunning and seductive partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), who he falls for immediately and confesses his schemes to. Scared to death that she may run away forever, he is hopelessly and completely in love with her. Instead of ratting on him, she joins his con and as the wealthy British aristocat...I mean aristocrat “Lady Edith Greensly” and steps up his operation bringing in more money than either one of them could have hoped for. Unfortunately it also brings them into view of the FBI and Irving has to make a deal to work for wild FBI agent, Richie DiMaso (played by Bradley Cooper) to keep Sydney out of jail. DiMaso pushes them to a world of Jersey power-brokers and mafia that's as dangerous as it is enchanting. Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) is the passionate, volatile, New Jersey mayor who gets caught between the con-artists and Feds through his complete trust and friendship with Irving. Then there is Irving’s unpredictable wife Rosalyn (played by Jennifer Lawrence) who Irving loves but really only for her son and as a result he is stuck with her. DiMaso begins as a cop looking to make a name for himself but the case keeps getting bigger and bigger and he begins to fall for Edith (Adams) who allows herself to be fallen for. In the end, Irving has to play a dangerous game between Ritchie and the two loves of his life to someway find a way out of his own mess.
I liked Christian Bale and thought he did a great job keeping the movie going and all the plates spinning. The crime story, the FBI story, the wives story and the political corruption scandal story. For the most part, Bradley Cooper is there to throw wrenches into his operation but I never really feel like he poses a major threat to Irving or Sydney. Jennifer Lawrence is perhaps the most under utilized in the entire movie. She is captivating in every scene she appears in (as always) and perhaps owns the best scene in the movie as she dance/cleans her house to Wings and Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die”. The movie is a great collections of scenes and as a whole they make a good and entertaining movie. Please don’t think that I didn't enjoy it. I still think this is a better movie than The Wolf of Wall Street. It resonates on the same wave length though. It is a spyglass to the 70‘s and a story that makes itself seem smarter than the audience. Perhaps it is, I just didn’t get it and I didn’t want to. I enjoyed myself and left the theater happy to have spent the $11.50 I paid.
The most under appreciated performance in the movie is comedian Louie C.K. as Bradley Cooper’s superior officer in about title only. The scenes between DiMasso and Louie C.K. are smart, funny and entertaining. I just wish there had been more too it. I went into the movie thinking it was going to be something other than what is was. The trailer made me believe that Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale were confidants and that the con was all they were about. The live a large and lavish lifestyle and love 1970‘s style. Instead I was given this movie. It was like being set up on a blind date with a girl you have seen as a supermodel and then arriving to see a normal, attractive girl there. It isn’t bad and the girl is really pretty but you keep looking for the supermodel. You don’t want to, you want to see the beautiful girl in front of you who makes you smile and laugh and dance with.... but what happened to the supermodel? American Hustle is a fine movie and I can’t say that you wouldn’t be entertained by it. There is plenty to like but it feels like the soul from Silver Lining’s was sucked out and breathed into this movie but some was lost in the transfer. I still like the movie and would gladly repeat view it. American Hustle just conned me a little and maybe I’m still a little bitter about it. Should’ve known it was coming. This movie is filled with cons.
Mr. Unhappy Sez: As far as Best Picture goes, in the Unhappyverse “Her” is still the frontrunner but American Hustle entertains. I just think it does so by telling you that you should be entertained and not by actually entertaining you.
I also sez that Jennifer Lawrence looks sexy in anything...
from cleaning the house
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