American Hustle Review by Sputnik

 A fictional film set in the alluring world of one of the most stunning scandals to rock our nation, American Hustle tells the story of brilliant con man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale), who along with his equally cunning and seductive British partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) is forced to work for a wild FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). DiMaso pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia that’s as dangerous as it is enchanting. Jeremy Renner is Carmine Polito, the passionate, volatile, New Jersey political operator caught between the con-artists and Feds. Irving’s unpredictable wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) could be the one to pull the thread that brings the entire world crashing down. Like David O. Russell’s previous films, American Hustle defies genre, hinging on raw emotion, and life and death stakes.

The movie is based on the true story involving the FBI sting operation ABSCAM Movie was ok. Its not as great as all those award nominations suggested. The first half takes a long while to build up the story and it was slow and bored a bit. I think they unnecessarily complicated the first half. The second half is better and the ending kind of makes it up.

Christian Bale was very good as Irving the conman – this time with a comb over and a paunch. But he totally copied Robert De Niro including his style of talking and accent. Bradley Cooper was good as the impatient FBI agent but his character is irritating though. Amy Adams was ok but I think she was miscast for the role. She is a good actress but not sexy and the cleavage revealing dresses did not suit her. Jennifer Lawrence looked very pretty and was very good initially. She totally stole the show in her scenes with Amy even though she had a much smaller role. Her role and acting later on became very similar to her Silver Linings Playbook one. Jeremy Renner was good but he should have had a bigger role. Robert De Niro was excellent in a 5 minute cameo.

P.S. This review is a comment I originally made in January 2014.

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