American Hustle - 4 smiles

When a movie is as entertaining as “American Hustle,” you have to give a lot of the credit to the director, David O. Russell, who has always shown a fondness for characters that are on the brink of imploding. And here, he’s assembled a cadre of stars from his last two films: Christian Bale and Amy Adams from 2011’s The Fighter and Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence from Silver Linings Playbook. He also manages to find a side to them that we haven’t seen before. Co-written with Eric Singer, Russell’s latest is based on the Abscam sting operation of the late 70s and early 80s, in which a con artist helped the FBI catch members of Congress taking bribes. ‘Some of this actually happened,’ an opening card playfully informs us at the film’s start, just before Russell introduces us to Bale’s paunchy Irving Rosenfeld plastering a horrendous hairpiece onto his shiny dome. To play the swaggering Rosenfeld, the owner of a small chain of Long Island dry cleaners who makes his real money through fake art and fraudulent personal loans, Bale packed on some 40 pounds. At a pool party, he meets Adams’ Sydney Prosser, a scrappy young woman from Albuquerque with dreams of reinventing herself in high style. It’s Sydney’s idea to don a fake accent and take on the alter ego of the posh Lady Edith, a Londoner with elite banking connections. With her help, Irving’s cons swing into high gear.

They become partners in crime and love, but, Irving also has a young son and a wife: Lawrence’s needy, vulnerable and spectacularly passive-aggressive Rosalyn. With her big hair and blood-red nails, Rosalyn is a force of nature. She knows just enough to be dangerous, which may make her an even bigger threat to Irving and Sydney than the federal authorities who are closing in on their operation. She’s fascinating to watch – she’s just unhinged enough to think she’s the voice of reason – and Lawrence is an absolute scene-stealer. Cooper’s Richie DiMaso is a hotheaded FBI agent who’s eager to make a name for himself with a big bust. Richie moves in on the conning lovers and forces them to help him net even bigger fish to get themselves out of trouble. But he also finds himself falling for the sexy Sydney, er, Lady Edith, and she may feel the same way. Or does she? Part of the fun of “American Hustle” is that it keeps us constantly guessing who’s scamming whom. It’s really enjoyable to spend time with these characters, and Russell creates such an infectiously zany vibe around them that even if you notice the running time (129 minutes), you probably won’t mind. For all of its brash personalities, this movie is an exploration of dissatisfaction and drive and the lengths we are willing to go to pursue it….and the illusions we often mistake for reality.  12/13/13