Film Review – American Hustle
Director: David O. Russell
Screenplay: Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
Cast: Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence
Genre: Drama
Ratings:****
Rating Score
* – Poor
** – Average
*** – Good
**** – Very Good
***** – Excellent
American Hustle has won three Golden Globe Awards, the Screen Actors gold Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture and has been nominated for ten Academy Awards.
Because of this I was very exited to watch this movie, and it did not disappoint.
American Hustle is set in the late 70’s and is about con artists Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) who meet, fall in love and start scamming people, but Irving is married to Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), who is unstable and quite an air-head. Eventually Irving and Sydney’s luck runs out and they are subsequently caught by FBI agent Richard DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) and blackmailed into helping the FBI to entrap members of congress when receiving bribes.
American Hustle is one of the best movies I have watched in a very very long time. I was seriously considering giving up on Hollywood movies and sticking to my favourite series, but then this movie came along. The script is well written and the acting is very good, it actually reminds me of Scarface in a way. Bale and Lawrence are the best for me in their respective roles. I have always thought Lawrence was way overrated and did not understand what the fuss was all about, but know I understand and agree. “She’s good, damn good”.I have always been a fan of the 70’s and 80’s, (personally I think I was born to late), which just made this movie more intriguing and wonderfully to watch. The costumes are flamboyant, the jewelry is huge and shiny and everything is just over the top, just like in those days.
Like I said it has been years since I watched such a good movie so this movie did it for me. It took me on a roller coaster ride of emotions. The suspense is excruciating, you would always wonder what’s going to happen next, and Russell made it even worse by letting it play in slow motion every time something dramatic or drastic is about to happen. Which is brilliant on his part is that his technique helps to make the movie even more remarkable. The only not so nice attribute about American Hustle, is that the supporting cast would tend to over act, probably because the main actors are so good. I suppose the supporting cast also wants to be noticed.
American Hustle is actually loosely based on true events. This fact just puts the cherry on the cake for me. It blows my mind to think that these events really happened, but that I was not there to experience it, (even if I had only read it in the papers). It would have been such a rush to have lived through those times myself.
I strongly recommend that you should go watch American Hustle. It will be two hours well spent on a movie. But obviously a few people will disagree with me, I can only say, to each his own, but go watch the movie, you will not waste your time.
However, going by the number of awards and nominations this movies has received, many agree it is an excellent movie and I concur.
