The feel of this movie reminded me of a great Hall of Fame Rock and Roll
concert. You know those concerts where they induct a great musician and all his
friends get up on the stage and they play all the great songs songs and everything
is great. ‘American Hustle,’ the new movie by David O. Russell feels like that.
It has an incredible cast and a plot that allows every actor the opportunity to
do some really throw down acting. In essence this movie is acting in that it is
about people who are reinventing themselves in order to pull off scams and
sting operations. The backdrop of the movie is the late 1970s ABSCAM scandal in
which several members of Congress were convicted of taking bribes from an Arab
sheik that in reality was an undercover FBI agent. It should be noted however
that almost none of the movie is true. The names of the Congressmen are the
same but all the FBI agents and con artists are fictional characters. As the
movie’s opening subtitle states, “Some of this actually happened.” So expect
fiction as a default not the other way around. In terms of storytelling this
strategy is an unambiguous success in that it allows the actors to make very
broad dramatic choices with their performances without the inherent worry that a
movie inspired by real events usually has, i.e. that they are unfairly
slighting real people.
The main quartet of actors involves the con artist team of Christian
Bale and Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper as the FBI agent, and Jennifer Lawrence as
the housewife of Christian Bale. In supporting roles are Jeremy Renner as the
main target of the sting, Mayor Carmine Polito, Louis C.K. as Bradley Cooper’s
long suffering supervisor, and Robert De Niro as the mobster who appears to get
a cut of the deal when the original sting starts getting escalated way out of
hand.
This is the third great movie of David O. Russell about redemption and
reinvention. “The Fighter” was about a down and out boxer who came back as a
champion. “Silver Linings Playbook” was about a manic-depressive fresh from a stint
in a mental asylum trying to get his life back on track. “American Hustle”
draws from both movies in terms of theme and cast. From “The Fighter” are
Christian Bale and Amy Adams and from “Silver Linings Playbook” are Bradley
Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Robert De Niro. Making their debut in a David O.
Russel movie is Jeremey Renner and Louis C.K. It is no mistake that actors in
the last two movies were nominated for Oscars (Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper,
Robert De Niro, and Jacki Weaver were nominated. Christian Bale, Melissa Leo,
and Jennifer Lawrence won) and this movie should be no different. The only
question is who gets nominated and who wins because almost every performance is
worthy of it.
Christian Bale plays Irving the main con artist. For this role,
Christian Bale that most humble/masochistic of actors decided to gain sixty
pounds and sport an elaborate comb-over. There are very few actors in movies
that would gain an ungainly amount of weight (or lose it!) to portray a
fictional character. Perhaps the best thing though about his performance is his
willingness to support all his fellow actors. Irving is a soft-spoken kind of
guy who spends his time trying to bring everybody else in the cast back from
the brink of insane shenanigans. It also helps that he has all that weight
because he moves slower than everybody else.
The opposite side of the coin is the manic cocaine-addled performance of
Bradley Cooper as the over-ambitious FBI agent that snags the con artists and
employs them to catch bigger game. This man is all sound and fury and not so
much thinking. Louis C.K. plays his long suffering supervisor and the
interactions between the two are some of the funniest in the movie what with
Bradley yelling and screaming and Louis C.K. doing the definitive embarrassed
put upon Louis C.K. performance. At the same time however, the Bradley Cooper
character of Richie Tomaso is the most tragic. I won’t give away how everything
turns out but the treatment of the FBI agent says a lot about how David O.
Russel probably feels about the ABSCAM scandal in general. It was a bad thing
wasn’t it because after all everybody in politics in beholden to money anyway
(just not in an illegal way) and what exactly is the point of entrapping people
who do not have a history of criminal behavior.
Amy Adams puts in several performances as a stripper from Alburquerque
who moves to New York and somehow finagles her way into a job at Cosmopolitan
magazine before falling in love with Irving and becoming a British financier
with royal connections in their respective scams. After the FBI catches Amy and
Christian she pretends to fall in love with Bradley (or does she pretend?) in
order to have just one more trick in the bag if things go south. She is playing
just about everyone. It is a very bold performance by Amy Adams and perhaps the
most complex character she has ever created.
Rounding out the main cast is Jennifer Lawrence, the wildcard. She plays
the housewife of Irving whose reckless impulsiveness is guided by the fact that
she knows nothing of what is going on. The funniest scene in the movie involves
Irving bringing home a new invention, a “science oven,” as a gift from the man
he is conning. He tells J-Rentz to not put any metal in it but doesn’t say why.
So she puts metal in it almost immediately and microwave bursts into flames all
over the house. Here’s the exact quote: “Don’t put metal in the science oven.
Don’t put metal in the science oven. He’s always treating me like a fucking
child. I do what I want.” BOOM!
As much of a character as anything else are the little details that
inhabit the movie: Christian’s combover, Amy Adams revealing dresses, Bradley
Cooper’s curlers, J-Rentz furs, Jeremey Renner singing Tom Jones’ ‘Delilah,’
Duke Ellington’s role in two characters falling in love, the thump and grind of
Led Zeppelin’s ‘Good Times, Bad Times,’ a trip to the disco with Bradley and
Amy, Louis’ story about ice fishing, the Mexican-American Arab sheik, a pool
party in the middle of the winter, and the purity and goodness of mayor Carmine
Polito and his family. Everything about this movie is exceptional. But above
all, “American Hustle” cares deeply about these exciting, fun, and charming
people that care deeply about what they are doing and who they want to be. They
fight, they laugh, they cry, they sing, they scream, they cheat and tell the
truth, and they live and fall in love. It was a wonderful experience to spend a
few short hours in their company.
If anything, this will be the Best Original Screenplay of the year.
Hands down. It’s great.
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