"American Hustle" weaves a tale of Long Island dry cleaner and con artist, Irving Rosenfeld (played by Christian Bale) and his mistress Sydney Prosser (played by Amy Adams) who, with little choice, become instrumental in an FBI investigation headed by nefarious agent, Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). All the while they must cope with conflicted emotions for those they are helping to arrest, Rosenfeld's passive aggressive wife (played without breaks by Jennifer Lawrence), and DiMaso's increasing obsessiveness as he leads them down a rabbit hole of cons and entrapment in which they must hustle for their very survival.
"American Hustle" is an exaggerated telling of the "ABSCAM" investigation of 1978 to 1981-or-so in which the FBI used a con artist to bribe and in many cases entrap various congressmen, mayors, and senators - mostly infamously the mayor of Camden, New Jersey played in the film by a pompadour wearing Jeremy Renner. One thing the film does very well in this sense is to capture the malevolent nature of the case in which the FBI used any method to tempt those in its cross-sight. DiMaso is in charge of the case, it's his. He wants to make BIG cases against BIG figures which will attract BIG headlines. He wants to be Elliot Ness in bell bottoms. And much to Rosenfeld's dismay, it brings them dangerously close to some very sinister people. Agent DiMaso, like Captain Ahab, turns-out to be a user of those who need him and an abuser of those who disagree with him.There are moments in this film that I love. There are moments of humorous arguments and lines that left me reeling and choking on my smoker's cough. There are moments of characterization... streams of consciousness - mainly by Rosenfeld - in which this cast of polyester-clad miscreants are given depth and dimension and we are allowed the illusion of reality. There moments between characters that disgust, warm, amuse, and break your heart. And then there are moments that you regret seeing so much that you could just punch the director, the editor, and the cinematographer for showing you. "American Hustle" has many moments.
"American Hustle" brutally kills its initial verisimilitude by doing something that is far too common in films today. It becomes too self aware. There are many, many slow motion shots set to your typical 1970's soundtrack. Many instances of actors doing 1970's stuff but in a very aware way as one might find at a 70's themed party. And yes, the film is supposed to be funny. But it also needs to be taken seriously enough to make us care. All of that dimension I talked about before ends-up getting lost when Jennifer Lawrence is jamming-out like a college girl wearing a wig or when we are subjected to a disco scene that feels like a commercial for the Palms in Las Vegas. Like any art or craft, storytelling is made in its subtlety. Too little, you fail to impact. Too much, you overwhelm.
The characters in this film are generally unlikable. Which I can get on board with. The only character that I imagine anybody sympathizing with is Irving, and not just because I do. Christian Bale really went all-out for this role, including disfiguring his own hair and gaining weight. Almost like a living homage to Robert DeNiro's method acting (look-out for DeNiro in a cameo), Bale transforms himself into a balding, insecure, rotund New York Jew caught between a disingenuous mistress, a bad marriage to a complete bitch, and an FBI Agent's machinations that will force him to betray a new found friend. Of all the character's who inhabit with film, Irving has the most dimension, the most complexity, the most understandable motivations, the greatest conflict... and yet not nearly enough story line.Instead of focusing on its strongest point, Irving and his conflict, American Hustle is steered into a Bermuda Triangle of plot and trying to be 70's. It becomes bogged-down in jumping from one plot point to another, one case to another, one moment of Amy Adam's cleavage to another. Much like this blog. It really is unfortunate because there are few things in film sadder than when a filmmaker squanders his most valuable asset. More focus on Irving really could have given this film more substance.
In so many ways, that is "American Hustle". It is a film that leads us to believe it to be something that we expect it to be. Then it violates those expectations by revealing itself to be something else. Ultimately, though, it turns-out to be something confusing that complicates our feelings about it. Like a lover who steals your money and runs-off with your best friend, I entered warily into "American Hustle". Ultimately there are things about the film that I love, and yet the film sabotages itself by neglecting those things, and often even working against them. I want so much to love this film and yet I cannot. "American Hustle" broke my heart and cleaned-out my savings after a short and stormy romance.
