REVIEW | American Hustle (2013)

The Story: “Some of this actually happened” is what we’re told as the movie begins. American Hustle is a fictionalized retelling of the ABSCAM operation of the late 70’s and early 80’s.  Its the story of two con artists who are set up by an FBI Agent and are forced to help him catch a politician trying to get the funds to reopen Atlantic City to take a bribe.

The Facts: American Hustle is a film written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell and is also directed by David O. Russell that stars  Christian Bale as Irving Rosenfeld, Bradley Cooper as FBI Agent Richie DiMaso, Amy Adams as Irving’s girlfriend Sydney Prosser/ Lady Edith Greensly, Jeremy Renner as Mayor Carmine Polito, and Jennifer Lawrence as Rosalyn Rosenfeld.

My Overall Take on the Movie: American Hustle is not a bad movie by any means but I personally did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would based on the previews and my love for everyone in the main cast.  It was a 138 minute long movie that felt like it was 3-hours. It overstayed its welcome and that’s not a good thing.  It was a movie filled with mostly dialogue, which is something, I enjoy but something about it just didn’t click and the film fell apart. If you’re a fan of Russell’s previous work you might enjoy this movie more than I did but I would say to save your money and just wait to rent it when it comes out.

Things I Liked: I really enjoyed the costume design in this film everything was how I picture the 70’s to be. I also really like the actors’ portrayals of almost every character I think they were spot on. Christian Bale’s performance in particular was astounding to me not just his acting but his commitment to the role in which he packed on 43 POUNDS!

Things I Didn’t Like: I really did not care for the pacing or the writing of this movie. Now I enjoyed Silver Linings Playbook, which was also written by David O. Russell, but this movie just seemed like something was off. It was either the pacing or the writing or a combination of the two but with this cast and this writer the movie should have been a lot better than it was. To me it seemed as though nothing was explained as to why it was happening or for what reason it needed to happen it just kind of happened. One instance in particular that I can think of is the scene where Spoiler: Bradley Cooper calls his boss and ask his location so he can kick his ass and then the next scene is him and his boss in the office of their superior telling the story. I just don’t understand why this happened and it was never explained why either and that is just one of multiple parts that I felt that way during the film.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Final Verdict: Save it for Redbox!!!

My Favorite Scene: The scene toward the end of the film where you find out the con that Christian Bale and Amy Adams had played on the FBI and Bradley Cooper was let off the case was probably my favorite just for the fact that I love it when a good plan comes together and I also hated Bradley Cooper’s character cuz he was such a dick in the movie. Plus it had the mayor getting off easy and he seemed like a good guy so that made me happy.