American Hustle

I don't know if I've ever seen a movie so publicized, hyped up so much, that despite all the advertisements, I still had no idea what it was about until I actually saw it.

First impressions of this film kind of made me skeptical. The movie came out in December, just as Oscar choices were beginning to be discussed. To someone who had never seen the movie, I was very hesitant to go see it because the only thing it really screamed out to me was "OSCARS! OSCARS! WE WANT OSCARS!" Looking at the cast, the lack of information I had on it, and the timing, it just seemed like this movie was put together in order to win big at the Oscars.

And it got nominated... big time!

So what's it about?

Christian Bale plays Irving Rosenfeld, a con-man in the business of scamming people into thinking they can get loans for a fee. A fee he keeps while never following through with getting people loans.

He makes a big business for himself with the help of Sydney Prosser (played by Amy Adams) and the two develop a personal relationship as well as a professional one.

Well things go wrong when FBI agent Richard DiMasio (played by Bradley Cooper) busts them and uses them as assets to bust white collar crime, especially public officials taking bribes.

The movie is a twisted game where each player has their own motives and rules in which to come out on top. Their plan is to solicit a bribe to a New Jersey Mayor (played by Jeremy Renner) and it just escalates and escalates with a whole lot of fun in between, including Irving's unstable wife, Rosalyn (played by Jennifer Lawrence).

The interesting thing about this movie is that its not really that unique of a plot. Its a crime film plain and simple. I could imagine this movie being made at a different time, with different actors, different directors and while it would probably still be an interesting movie, it wouldn't come to Oscar nominated status.

The elements that make it a contestant for multiple Oscars is how the plot is executed and the brilliant performances of the characters.

Christian Bale plays a Irving Rosenfeld, a fat con artist who is very good at his job. He's done these scams for years and  he has a system. The performance of Bale was just absolutely phenomenal. If this movie was that mediocre film I mentioned before, Bale's character could have really been played by anybody. But Bale owns the role and makes it something unique and really quite spectacular. He put on some extreme weight for the role. This isn't the first time Bale has had incredible weight shifts.

And then there was Amy Adams...

My god, she was gorgeous. I think I could count on one hand the number of scenes she wore shirts with no cleavage. As you can see from the picture, she would wear these shirts that had so much cleavage but I felt bad for looking because she was so stunning in every scene.

Apart from her looks, she gave an absolutely brilliant performance. A part of her schemes with Christian Bale's character is to use a persona of a British accent. You can see her inner conflict mixed with her own scheming and you never know what side she's on. She plays this game between Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper and she's just manipulative and smart as hell. But while she's manipulative, she's a likable character and Adams just brings it.

I have to give Bradley Cooper credit. He is really a credible dramatic actor. I probably should have figured that out last year with Silver Linings Playbook... but I never saw it so I didn't know. I've only seen him in The Hangover and while he's "funny" in that movie I'm not a huge fan of it. But in this he's really great.

He's an arrogant FBI agent. While he wants so badly to get into investigating white collar crime, he doesn't have the understanding Rosenfeld does. But when things go well, thanks to Rosenfeld, he jumps in and takes control.

In the end he's really just a character you love to hate. He soon learns that things aren't black and white and simple but very grey and he gets sucked into that world. And he loves it. He's an incredibly complex character.

And then there's Jennifer Lawrence.

And my god, is she fun in this movie. She's basically kind of a white trash housewife but at the same time she's incredibly charming. She's not very bright considering the stuff she does in the movie but she plays this incredibly important role.

She plays the wife of Christian Bale's character. She's unstable, she's incredibly ego centric, and by god is she beautiful.

At first I wasn't sure if I'd be able to discern her from her Jennifer Lawrence self. But damn she is a good actress. If I didn't know that already, she really is.

The last character worth talking about is Jeremy Renner. He's great in this movie. Nothing Oscar worth but its about time Jeremy Renner did another critically acclaimed movie. He can act he just hasn't done a lot of critically acclaimed movies recently.

I won't dwell too much longer on this film just because I've said a lot about it. Its really a fun movie and the acting is phenomenal.

I don't think it will win Best Picture but I'd be bummed if it didn't win one of the best performance Oscars. Based off the movies I've seen (and there aren't many) I could see Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams or possibly Christian Bale winning an award for it.

This movie was a lot more fun than 12 Years a Slave. I don't know if that makes it better I definitely understand why the movie was nominated.

So have you seen American Hustle? What did you think? Comment and discuss below!

I'll leave you with this. I don't know if this will stay up but there's a part where Jennifer Lawrence sings Live and Let Die. It shows Lawrence's acting, it also shows how fun this movie is and, its Jennifer Lawrence singing Live and Let Die, why wouldn't you want to see that?