Welcome stranger. So in my last post I mentioned that I was going to watch a film a day and review them here. The problem with that is that it's already the 27th January and I have only posted one review thus far, so over the next few days I'll be playing catchup and will be posting several in a day until I do so. I may not write as much about some of them as I did to Let the Right One In, but we'll see.
Day 2- American Hustle
Director- David O. Russell
Year- 2013
What is it? Comedy caper with a killer soundtrack staring Christian Bale and Amy Adams as con artists forced by FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) to help him take down corrupt politicians including Jeremy Renner's Mayor Carmine Polito and loosely based on a real life FBI operation in the 1980's.
Why did I watch it? I heard via word-of-mouth that American Hustle was very good, so I went to see if they were right using my unlimited cinema card for the first time to do so.
My thoughts- As far as opening scenes in films go seeing Christian Bale's conman carefully construct his come-over-toupee while the credits roll is quite the attention-grabber and it sets the scene for a wickedly funny comedy caper full of memorable characters and bad hair.
Christian Bale plays Irving (or "Irv") and it's not just his hair that is fake as he's a small-time conman stuck in a loveless marriage with Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) and only stays with her for the sake of their child. His life is changed when he meets and falls for Sydney (Amy Adams) and while at first she reacts disgustedly to his schemes pretty soon (within 30 seconds actually) she's putting on a British accent and pretending to be an aristocrat in order to connive people from their money in Irv's cons. All goes well for our pair until they try a sting on undercover FBI agent Richie DiMaso, played by Bradley Cooper who also has terrible hair and in an amusing scene him and Sydney are talking on the phone whilst both of them have their hair in rollers.
DiMaso arrests Sydney, the more seasoned Irv managers not to incriminate himself during his attempted plan to scam Richie, but agrees to let both her and Irv go just as long as they help him with the arrest of four politicians, by getting them to take bribes on camera from a fake sheikh. One of Richie's targets include popular New Jersey Mayor Carmine Polito (Renner), who wants to legalise gambling in Atlantic City. Carmine however is something of a rarity for a politician- a genuinely nice man, who's sole concern is for his family and his constituents.
As part of Richie's scam Irv and his wife, to much jealousy from Sydney, befriend Carmine and his family and in turn Irv begins to fell horrible for deceiving him, especially after the mayor buys him a microwave (or a 'science oven' as Rosalyn calls it in a hilarious scene). More complications arise as Richie's sting operation threatens to anger the local mob, who have an invested interest in gambling being legalised. Pretty soon Irv has to try and hatch a plan to keep him and Sydney out of jail, protecting them from the Mob, helping Carmine escape prison time and to stop his wife from ruining it all.
David O. Russell has put together a fantastic cast from his two previous movies The Fighter (Bale, Adams) and Silver Linings Playbook (Lawrence, Cooper and Robert DeNiro in a cameo role) and all of them seem to embrace their roles with relish.Christian Bale, who famously lost 62 pounds for his role in the Machinist has now packed on the pounds and sports a pot-belly to go with his toupee. Amy Adams is able to flit between English and Americans accents with ease. Bradley Cooper continues to prove any nay-sayers wrong who doubted the Hangover stars acting chops (not mine, I remember how great he was in Alias!) and his scenes with boss Stoddard Thorsen (played by Louis C.K), where Richie keeps interrupting Thosen's pep-talks, thinking he knows the moral of the story are a recurring gag throughout the movie. Jeremy Renner is perhaps the heart of the whole film. Much like Irv you too will be swept up for what a nice guy his mayor is and will be hoping that he doesn't fall prey to the FBI sting.
Then there's Jennifer Lawrence who's character is described by Irv as the Picasso of passive-aggressive karate and her emotionally-manipulation her husband is just a joy to watch. Even with her limited screen time she completely steals the movie and a scene where she sings a version of 'Live and Let Die' whilst cleaning the house with marigolds on is perhaps the highlight of the whole thing. I wouldn't be too surprised to see her win a second Oscar of her career.
So in retrospect this is a thoroughly enjoyable film and a great way to spend your evening.
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