Batman, Lois Lane, Katniss Everdeen, Hawkeye and...Bradley Cooper starring in a Goodfella's remake? I'm there. This was my thought process when I first saw the trailer for American Hustle. Heartbreakingly, this movie has nothing to do with Joe Pesci. But that doesn't stop it from being fantastic.Because that's exactly what it is.
American Hustle begins its approx. 138 minutes with Christian Bale carefully and quite beautifully creating the best toupee arrangement ever to grace the screen. It's both disgusting and awesome. Bale stars as a man who seems to always be wearing some sort of velvet, Irving Rosenfield, a professional, you guessed it, HUSTLER *DING* Irving (don't you just love that name?) partners up with Sydney (Amy Adams) in a successful money making scheme. If you don't count financially, no one is getting hurt, and these two are getting RICH. Enter Richie (Bradley Cooper) a dude with a serious perm and a big plan to use Irving and Sydney's hustling talents to take down some corrupt politicians, which includes kind, sweet and completely clueless Mayor of the people, Carmine Polito. (Jeremy Renner) However the biggest and best player in this game is the wild card, Irving's wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) She's annoying, unbelievably loud and is kind of a pyro. No one knows what she will do. Does she even know? And it is very possible she could get someone killed just by being..herself.
That's the basic run down, I hate spoilers and want you be at least a little surprised if you haven't seen it!
American Hustle flows together pretty evenly. Amid all of the twists and turns, who's hustling who, the audience is never left confused. (Were you? I wasn't.) Even the slightest plot holes seemed to be covered by the end and in a good way! At it's core, the overall story is fairly basic. I think it's unique to the time, because I'm not sure what other mainstream film has been made with this particular kind of vibe since the 90s. It's impressive, but perhaps not spectacular. The actors are what make this trip to the past a truly worthwhile investment. The individual performances were amazing and the chemistry of the whole ensemble is absolutely phenomenal. Amy Adams and Bradley Cooper were great, but as much as I love them, they weren't necessarily my favorites. In my opinion, it's easy to see why Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence were nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. I mean, come on. The Dark Knight was transformed into a pudgy sleaze. Just watch him fist pump to music. It's the best. But it's not just his appearance, but the depth of character transformation he brings to the table. But hands down, Jennifer Lawrence steals every single scene she is in! She could have easily been a Real House Wives rip off on speed, but she put everything she had into this performance, therefore creating something on an entirely new level. She totally and completely blew me away. She won last year for being crazy in Silver Linings Playbook and I'm pretty sure she will win again for being even CRAZIER in American Hustle.
Okay, so all in all, American Hustle was pretty darn good. It was super fun and well worth the million dollars it costs these days to see a movie. Will it win the Oscar for Best Picture? Maaaaaybe.
Other awesome thoughts about this film:
*David O. Russell should make movies with J. Law and Bradley Cooper FOR-EVER.
*The soundtrack will make you want a time machine to take you back to the 70s so you can be this cool.
*I wonder what Clark Kent feels about his lady working soooo closely with the old Bruce Wayne.
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