American Hustle

My admiration for David O Russell keeps growing with every movie that he directs.  My first experience was with Fighter where he took Christian Bale and Melissa Leo to Oscars.  Next up was Silver Linings Playbook with Jennifer Lawrence making her mark with the coveted statuette.  Now it seems to be the turn of Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence who have brilliant roles and have backed it with performances that deserve their nominations.

American Hustle is the second attempt at making a movie on the Arab Scam or Abscam as it was called (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscam).  The movie begins with a cheeky statement that says, “Some of this actually happened” against the usual statutory disclaimer (which is included in the end credits).  Full marks for the start – it definitely creates an impact.

Russell, paints clear pictures of the main characters involved in the story. Beginning with Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) owns a chain of laundry stores but is slowly moving towards a more profitable area – counterfeit paintings.  Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) is a struggler from New Mexico who comes over to NY to make it big. Rosenfeld and Prosser then move up to create a different scam to relieve desperate individuals of $5K each in the hope of getting loans of $50K each.

Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) is the over enthusiastic FBI Field Agent who first corners Rosenfeld and Prosser to uncover 4 scams in return for their freedom.  Much against Sydney’s wishes, Irving decides to co-operate with DiMaso, beginning with probably the cleanest guy in the city – Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner). Rounding off the key characters would be Irving’s eccentric wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence).

The magnificence of American Hustle lies in the simplicity of its narration.  It focuses a lot on building up the characters of the movie much like Russell’s previous works – thereby leaving no doubt regards the reasons for a particular character behaving in a particular manner.  The transition to the main story is built up brilliantly.

It comes as no surprise that all 4 lead characters have received nominations for the Oscars.  American Hustle is the only movie in the running to be the 5^th movie to hit the big 5 (Director, Motion Picture, Lead Actor, Lead Actress and Screenplay).  But something tells me that it will have to be satisfied with 1, maybe 2.  I am betting on Jennifer Lawrence who is well on her way to be called out as the best actress in this century.  The others may just be pipped at the post.

Nothing can, however, make me say that AH wasn’t a good movie.  If there could be a complaint, it is that the eventual climax just gets done within the snap of a finger.  Russell could have built it up just a wee bit more I guess.  I am going to give it an 8 on 10.  Brilliant movie.  Must Watch.  Definitely top 10. Don’t miss it for the world.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2928060441/?ref_=tt_ov_vi