AMERICAN HUSTLE

American Hustle (2013)

Grade: B-

Starring: Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Jennifer Lawrence

Premise: Two con artists are recruited by an FBI agent to help him determine which New Jersey politicians would take under-the-table money in shady business deals.

Rated R for language, strong sexual content and brief violent images

How appropriate is it that the best word to describe a movie called American Hustle is “slick”? Celebrated director David O. Russell’s newest project—about an alleged series of shady deals between the FBI, the mob, and a handful of New Jersey politicians—is just that: slick. It’s headlined by two of the great character actors of this or any era (Christian Bale and Amy Adams), and features another winning turn by the current reigning Princess of Hollywood (Jennifer Lawrence), plops these people down in an era when they can dress with exaggerated glamour and play with exaggerated accents, and even puts a cute emotional spin on their characters’ relationships. But, starting with an opening credit that takes a stab at Hollywood execs everywhere (“Some of this actually happened”), Hustle feels smug and overly-streamlined, stuffed with great actors and tense dialogue while really amounting to…nothing. With a central plotline that doesn’t make sense and a cast full of characters pulling the wool over one another’s’ eyes to one degree or another, Hustle quickly becomes one of those movies that you’d rather just skipped to the end, so you could see how all the double-crossing shakes out. Oh, the actors are good, but, ultimately, you get the feeling this overly-smart movie has no real reason to exist.

Plot

Irving Rosenfeld (Bale, brilliant as usual) became a con artist after watching his business-owner father get duped repeatedly in business deals while Irving was growing up in the Bronx. True, Irving runs a few dry cleaners, but he makes most of his money by taking people’s money in exchange for fake loans designed to pay for repairs to damage he caused. He’s used to beguiling people, but he himself is beguiled when he meets Sydney Prosser (Adams, likewise superbly on form), a stunning redhead who’s good with accents and loves a good jazz tune. They hit it off, and Irving is so taken with Sydney, he admits who he is and what he does, and offers her an in. She takes it, and, soon, they’re raking in the dough. But they ambitious Sydney mouths off to the wrong person while wheeling and dealing, that person being fiery FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper, working hard to enhance his serious-actor credentials). Sydney winds up in jail where she learns that A) Irving has a young son, and a wife (a scene-stealing Lawrence) back home, and, B) she could go do serious time for fraud. But DiMaso surprises Sydney with an offer: if she and Irving help him find which New Jersey politicians will take under-the-table money in a phony business deal, and help him bust four high-level individuals to enhance his resume, she can go free.

Agreeing to go along to assuage his guilt and help Sydney, Irving soon rubs shoulders with Atlantic City, NJ mayor Carmine Polito (a welcome but underused Jeremy Renner), an old-fashioned, idealistic man of the people, who wants to resuscitate his cultural hotbed town. So Irving, Sydney and Richie pretend to be business partners with an Arab sheik who wants to fund American economics by getting casinos up and running again. This “sheik” wants to make a deal with Polito—give him a thank-you sum up front, and he’ll fund them long-term. Of course, the sheik and the money are both really coming from the FBI. Polito’s enthusiasm seems to make Irving and Sydney’s job easier, but there are chinks in the armor: Irving loves Sydney, but he can’t bring himself to leave his son or his childlike wife; Sydney loves Irving, even though his lies broke her heart, but winning him back proves to be a challenge when his wife turns to be cleverer than everyone thought; Richie DiMaso’s throwing tons of FBI money and resources at the project, aiming to enhance his growing legendary status, while also eyeing the gorgeous Sydney; and, perhaps worst of all, Irving starts bonding with Carmine Polito, a genuinely good guy who wants to do good things for people, and Irving, the lifetime con artist, starts hating the idea that he’s screwing him over.

What Works?

Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. Adams is one of the most committed and versatile actresses alive, and she proves it again with another portrayal that feels completely original, and doesn’t remind you of any of her previous roles. Bale’s so good you forget he’s acting, that he's not just being. Renner’s decent, though admittedly in the least-interesting role in the movie. And Lawrence, the Girl on Fire herself, proves she can do no wrong, making the most of her limited screen time (you truly wish she had more) as a real firecracker; she’s less a hooker with a heart of gold here than a Bimbo with a Backbone, a glam gal who’s unafraid to do dirty work to get what she wants.

With all these great actors in fine form, Hustle doesn’t have to do a whole lot right. And despite the dense dialogue, the surprise-twist-filled plot offers up some great nuggets of intrigue and amusement. And the movie’s best scene builds a delicious amount of suspense very quickly, as Irving, DiMaso, Polito and the “sheik” sit down with someone interested in getting in on their deal, a casino-owning mafia bigwig. Starting with Irving and DiMaso’s damn, this is going too far expressions and a supposed language-barrier gimmick, and capped off by a perfect big-time celebrity cameo, this scene oozes suspense, and seems to be pointing to a second act full of Scorcese-level dramatic theatre.

What Doesn’t Work?

Alas, Hustle takes the high road and winds to a too quick and too clean resolution. I was hoping that centerpiece scene would be a harbinger of big things to come, that all the confusing, not-that-interesting wheeling and dealing would build into more a crime-drama suspense piece, but it didn’t. I liked some of the directions the screenplay took (Irving feeling guilty about duping nice-guy Polito, Sydney really caring for Irving even after realizing he lied to her, Irving's mouthy wife talking to the wrong people), but the whole time, I felt like I was missing something. The deal the main trio gets into with Polito is never fully explained—reminder: going to the bathroom without anyone to fill you in (if they understand enough to fill you in, that is) would be a big mistake. Partially because it's so difficult to understand, Hustle, at two hours and fifteen minutes, can feel excruciatingly long.

Part of Hustle’s problem is that it just feels like a movie made to try to win Oscars. It really does. With all these well-known, Oscar-nominated actors around, a dense screenplay with some funny dialogue said in funny regional accents while the actors wear flashy outfits probably seemed like a recipe for big-time Academy consideration, and David O. Russell and company will probably get it. Because, let’s face it: who really makes movies like this just for fun? That Oscar-baiting is most exemplified by the work of Bradley Cooper, who, as DiMaso, takes his flamboyant character from last year’s Silver Linings Playbook and ramps up it a few notches, so that DiMaso becomes part mad-dog, part nutcase. As a thespian, Cooper’s clearly able to do what he’s asked, but the character’s annoying and over-the-top, a callow, unlikeable blusterer who snatches the spotlight repeatedly from the more interesting, down-to-earth characters.

Content

They may be said by characters with varying New York accents, but there are F-words aplenty in this screenplay. There’s also a lot of innuendo—groping, heated kissing, cameras lingering on actresses’ cleavage, and so on. But Hustle’s main problem is that the screenplay is too dense, that the content is hard to understand and, as an extension, hard to connect with or care about.

Bottom Line

Flashy but unnecessary, American Hustle features a to-die-for cast and an interesting screenplay, but it’s a little too smart and too obviously Oscar-hungry for its own good.

American Hustle (2013)

Directed by David O. Russell

Screenplay by Eric Singer and David O. Russell

Rated R

Length: 138 minutes