American Hustle Review

I can't tell you why criminals do what they do; it's not so black and white. If I had to guess I'd say they do it because they have actual reasons, I don't think it's like in the movies where they do it just because they can. They do it to survive and sometimes even to thrive. Now of those who do thrive, con artists seem to be the ones that make out the best. They are smarter than the average person and can take you for an untold amount of money. Look at Bernie Madoff, he stole 60 billion dollars like it was nothing and would have gotten away with it if he wasn't so greedy. It's not an easy line of work, but that's the life. "American Hustle" is a new con film directed by David O. Russell taking place in the 1970's. The film follows Irving and Sydney, a couple of white collar con artists. One afternoon their operation gets busted by an FBI agent named Richard, but for a reduced sentence he makes them a deal. He wants them to team up in order to take out corrupt politicians. Through a mutual friend, Irving and Sydney bait the mayor of Camden, New Jersey, Carmine Polito. Carmine is a good guy and everyone loves him, all he wants to do is help the people. He's campaigning to revitalize gambling in Atlantic City to help the economy but is having trouble gathering the necessary funds to do so. So he decides to do business with the con artists, believing they are business acquaintances with a Sheik from the Middle East who is looking for an investment. Through this scam Irving actually becomes good friends with Carmine, so now he is looking for a way to get him and Sydney off while doing his best to protect Carmine. Unfortunately the FBI agent only cares about furthering his career and threatens to bury them; but the con artists refuse to go down without a fight. David O. Russell is one of my favorite directors, he's unique and his style just appeals to me. His last film "Silver Linings Playbook" was one of the best and one of my favorite films of 2012; so I had some fairly high expectations for this film, fortunately this movie actually surpassed what I was hoping for. First off, the acting is fantastic; "American Hustle" has one of the best ensemble casts of the year and everyone does an amazing job. Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Irving's crazy wife, might even be up for a best supporting actress nomination. The screenplay is one of the best written of the year as well, the dialog is smooth and feels natural. I've heard a lot of the dialog is improved but I can't say so for certain. The movie is also very funny and had me laughing at multiple times. Every director has their own style, some more apparent than other; Russell is a one of a kind and you can always recognize their style, "American Hustle" is no different. He does a great job in this movie, it's obvious that he knew exactly what he wanted to do in this movie and he does it perfectly. Probably my biggest problem with the movie that they use a voice over narrative to further along the plot seems kind of lazy. While we've seen this before and we know it can work, it just didn't for this movie. Also I'd say this movie is about 15-20 minutes to long, it's not an overly long movie but by the end I was ready to leave. There's no doubt, "American Hustle" is one of the best films of the year. Everything worked so well together and I'm so glad I finally got to see it. It's probably not for everyone, but I'd certainly recommend it. And I'll go ahead and predict we'll see a lot of this movie at the Oscars.

Pros: Fantastic acting from the entire cast, dialog is smooth and feels natural, well written screenplay, very funny, authentic looking costume and set design, great directing.

Cons: 15-20 minutes too long, voice over narrative to move plot along is lazy.

4.5/5 Stars