You won’t feel scammed by American Hustle

In the late 1970s, the FBI launched an investigation into corrupt politicians under cover name Abscam. The Feds hired a convicted con artist conduct the operation which ended up nabbing one senator, six members of the House of Representatives, one member of the New Jersey State Senate, members of the Philadelphia City Council, and an inspector for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. David O. Russell’s new film American Hustle takes the basics of this operations and wraps it up brilliantly in a fictional narrative.

Christian Bale stars as Irving Rosenfeld, a Long Island businessman who owns a chain of dry cleaners. He also “helps” people with bad credit get loans. Except he doesn’t, he just scams them for $5,000 and the loan never materializes. Irving meets Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) at a party and the two hit it off, eventually becoming partners in crime and in love despite the fact that Irving has a wife (Jennifer Lawrence) and a son at home. A prospective client shows up one day, but he turns out to be Richie DeMaso (Bradley Cooper) of the FBI and he nabs Sydney (who is going by the name and accent of Lady Edith) taking his check in exchange for the non-existent loan.

Richie knows that Irving loves Edith (Richie has no clue she’s not really British, although he does know she is not of royal stock), so he makes them an offer they can’t refuse: help the FBI bring down four of their most wanted, and they walk away scot-free. The plan seems to be working, but the power and excitement goes to Richie’s head as the mayor of Camden, NJ (Jeremy Renner) is drawn into the scam simply because he is desperate to fund the redevelopment of Atlantic City. The operation then snowballs nearly out of control as Richie, Edith and Irving are drawn deeper into the criminal underworld that could have dire consequences if the plan fails.

I will state right up front that American Hustle is my favorite movie of the year (I still have yet to see The Wolf of Wall Street). I’ve heard from many sources about how difficult David O. Russell can be to work with (Lily Tomlin went quite public with that fact after working with him on I [Heart] Huckabees), but with whatever madness he has that drives him, it ends up being pure cinema artistry on screen. American Hustle has the look and the sounds of the period down pat (The hair! The 1970s studio logo!), and Russell’s and Eric Singer’s script just crackles with great dialogue and a whip-smart plot that careens from one scam to the other that will leave you wondering just who is actually scamming who.

Russell also knows how to get great performances out of his actors, and Bale, Cooper, Adams, Lawrence, Renner, Louis CK and everyone else involved are just terrific (the one weak link being Elisabeth Röhm as Renner’s wife who gets just a bit too melodramatic as their world begins to crumble around them). There’s even a very nifty cameo by a very well-known actor playing a Mafia head (a role not too far out of his wheelhouse) that almost made me gasp out loud when he came on screen. Bale, once again, has completely transformed himself into an overweight, balding, middle-aged man who, despite his looks, can still attract someone like Amy Adams on his sheer charisma. It’s no surprise that both of them have been nominated for Golden Globe awards along with the film (in the Best Comedy category!), director and screenplay.

The plot may be a bit convoluted to some with all of the double-crossing going on, but I like how my esteemed colleague Ivey West described it using the cast’s superhero roles: Rocket Raccoon (Cooper’s role in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy) tries to trick Lois Lane (Adams) and Batman (Bale) into helping entrap Hawkeye (Renner), but the whole plan is almost ruined by Batman’s wife Mystique (Lawrence). That may not mean anything to the general movie-goer, but it should draw more comic book/superhero movie fans to see this movie (see it!). Any way you look at it, after two hours and twenty minutes, you will not feel scammed in any way by American Hustle.