American Hustle - L'apparenza inganna

This movie has gotten a lot of buzz, and I decided to watch it after it won the Golden Globe for best comedy. For me, the movie itself was just OK, but the acting, costumes, and music were all amazing. Christian Bale is at his best as the lead in this film, and Jennifer Lawrence has some of the best scenes in the movie. All in all I am a little confused about how I feel about this movie. It starts well, I was initially engaged and interested to see what happened. The middle dragged a little bit, and it was hard to keep my mind from wandering. Thankfully there is a great cameo by Robert DeNiro in the middle that grabs your attention and gets you back on track for awhile. By the end of the movie though I was happy that I had sat through the whole thing, I really enjoyed how everything ending up playing out, and found myself smiling at the end of it all. So while I wouldn't call this movie a must see, it certainly is not a waste of time either. If you have a night to kill, give this movie a shot and at least enjoy the great performances, if not so much the slightly slow plot.

It did not take an astronomical amount of time during my screening of American Hustle to realize I had found the best film of the 2013. American Hustle was not what I expected, but in the best way possible. Acting as almost a descendant of Goodfellas, it does not rip off the story or characters, but traces of Martin Scorsese's masterpiece can be found in the style and spirit of David O'Russell's now masterpiece. O'Russell keeps his controlled hand over the wild characters and fast-paced plot; for the crime movie it is, class seems high on the list of "musts."

The commenters of the screenplay have noted how much of a blast the screenplay is; a blast it is, but most are ignoring the intricacy of the screenplay by David O'Russell and Eric Singer. The groundwork is the twisty fraud story, which is snappy, entertaining, and full of surprises. The next layer is the character work of the five leading roles, the screenplay inflames all the characters to reveal their unique cores. The third layer details those characters each with their own object of symbolism including a comb over, a British accent, hair curlers, nail polish, and a science oven. Layer four is the screwball comedy dialogue exchanges between the characters, which drives comedic artistry out of the actors leaving the audience cheerfully laughing.

The most puzzling compliant about American Hustle many are holding against the film is a lack of deeper meaning. It confuses me because the deeper meaning is quite clear and abundantly there, Amy Adams and Christian Bale even have key moments of literally speaking it to the other characters. It's a story of identities, being unhappy with who you are and the different versions of ourselves we put on display as we encounter different people. We have numerous roles we must play in order to survive, whether it be for respect, love, self-worth, or community. We all do it.

David O'Russell's sight of his screenplay dares him to capture his film in a particular fashion. The camera acts as a silent third party in scenes of where, if the audience were a character in the movie, our eyes would be during the conversations such as focusing on hand gestures, zooming in to characters as they speak, and the length from the characters to the camera in his editing. Where our focus would be in person is where O'Russell places us in his vision where and when he wants us to see what.

The acting ensemble of American Hustle has been called the star of the show, collectively the five leading actors support each other through the two hours and fifteen minutes. Some have found it troubling to select one of the five as the most valuable player because all five do their homework and put the effort in. I anticipated the cast from the trailers and released clips, but I never found myself too terribly excited to see Christian Bale's work, yet he surprised me with how complete his characterization was of Irving Rosenfled. This is a trite way of describing an accomplished acting performance, but Bale warrants it here: I forgot I was watching Christian Bale, the actor, entirely.

Bradley Cooper has made a career by unleashing the inner-asshole in himself; in American Hustle he's the ultimate shade of that character type with an added vibrancy and an immaturity of not feeling respected. Jennifer Lawrence oozes in her supporting role filling the juvenile Rosalyn with hilarity and loneliness. Someone who saw American Hustle with me commented on how unlikeable Lawrence's character is and in lesser hands it may have been more predominant, but Lawrence charms her way through her character's flaws and makes us empathize with her entirely. Jeremy Renner delivers great work as well, but with fewer money moments and less "umph" than his co-stars.

The general consensus may have trouble finding an MVP of the cast, but it was no problem for me. Though I admired everything Bale, Cooper, Lawrence, and Renner added to American Hustle, it's an understatement to say the film belongs to Amy Adams. She's proved herself to be a great talent, but Adams delivers her most accomplished work here. In the Hollywood Reporter's Actress Roundtable earlier this winter, Adams commented how miserable she was during the filming of American Hustle because she was so consumed by her character's identity, or lack-there-of. I've never seen a performance like Adams or a character like Sydney. Adams slips in and out of Sydney's faux British accent as she keeps her cards hidden from all the other characters. We never knows who her loyalties belong to. Tears swell in Adams eyes as she pathologically tells the story of her character, without divulging enough information to be completely vulnerable. It's a sensational performance.

"The world isn't black and white as you say, it's extremely grey," a line Christian Bale imparts to Bradley Cooper, another existential message that is driven by the screenplay. O'Russell exhibits his two main characters, con artists, and asks us to like them enough to follow them for rest of the story. By the end, we have not only accepted them, but love and root for them.

At the heart of American Hustle is a love story between Irving and Sydney, an aspect that I found to be most successful. Adams is at her most gorgeous ever, Bale is balding and fifty pounds over. Their love is not formed around physical attraction, something magical happens in the first twenty minutes and we see and feel the way they fall in love. This supports the film's stance on appearances meaning nothing. With maybe the exception of Blue is the Warmest Color, try to find two 2013 film characters more in love than Irving and Sydney.

Frankly, the movie itself does not live up to its hype. I never was fully engaged with any character even though it takes more than enough time and delivers a tedious and often painstaking pace. Honestly, it felt to me like the film dragged and that the ending would never arrive. Even though not fully engaged and not empathetic towards any character depicted, there is enough style that I somehow cared about how the story ended. Every scene seemed to me like an exercise in an acting class. It feels like a professor took a group of talented actors and gave them this over-the-top 1970's assignment. Everyone gets an "A" because they are that good but it barely felt like a coherent film to me. It's like their assignment included constant references to try and deliver a "Goodfellas" type tone without having a script to back it up. The events of the conclusion were so easy to spot that I'm sure most everyone will see it coming a mile away.

Overall, interesting but there is far less substance than I was expecting. I have to say this was a let down.

A well deserved movie for all the nominations, not to mention the actors. It had something missing from being undisputed the best of the year, but so far, it is way better than the actual winner of the oscar.

The acting from all round was amazing. I find it very hard to believe that Christian bale didn't win a major award for his role I thought he was the stand out actor in this along side Jennifer Lawrence. It's crazy what Bale puts his body through for roles. The ending was perfect it ended exactly how I wanted it to.