For Your Consideration: American Hustle

American Hustle (2013)

Hot off the heels of two very hot Oscar favourites in three years, comes red-hot David O. Russell’s hot new Academy-fancied flick American Hustle. Now that’s really hot.

David O. Russell’s American Hustle (MAN, that’s satisfying to say) is a film utterly clad in veneer. It’s very much a haircuts, nail varnish, dodgy accents, more hair, heaving cleavage, aviators, even more hair kind of a movie.

Set in 1970s New Jersey, Christian Bale’s be-toupéed Irving Rosenfeld is a flabby career-conman, making decent wedge from knocked-off paintings and trifling lending scams; juggling his be-bouffanted, haphazard handful of a trophy wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) and be-frizzied soul-mate and partner-in-crime Sydney (Amy Adams). When be-permed, ambitious undercover cop Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) busts Irving and Sydney, he offers them the chance to secure their freedom by bagging him bigger fish in the form of senators, governors and be-pompadoured family man and mayor of Atlantic City Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner).

But despite all the facade and the follicle topiary, you’d be a fool (a fool I say) to labour under the misapprehension that American Hustle hasn’t got depth; it’s got it in volumes.

Russell’s finest quality as a storyteller has always been his knack for showing humankind’s desperation to connect with other humans and be loved. Most prominently of course this was demonstrated in the mentally unstable protagonists of last year’s Silver Linings Playbook, but equally in the brotherly relationship at the heart of The Fighter and Oedipal lusting of his underrated debut 20 years ago, Spanking the Monkey.

Each of American Hustle’s main players are plagued by such an emotional pit and is blinkered by it; DiMaso is desperate to be admired by his peers, Rosalyn by a devoted husband, Sydney by a man to match her own ambition, Carmine by his townspeople.

And Irving is a truly splendid character. With the appearance of Tony Clifton and morals of ostensible dubiousness, he is drenched in pathos. Even when faced with a lengthy stretch as his President’s pleasure, he is more concerned that Sydney has eyes for DiMaso. Even when staring down the barrel of a Mafia-grasped gun, he seems more distressed that Rosalyn has taken a new fancy man.

It is almost impossible not to back this ageing, lame horse, and this is only exacerbated by Bale’s note-perfect performance. The overcharged style that he utilised jarringly to claim his Oscar for The Fighter is far better suited to the almost comic-bookish style of American Hustle. He’ll thoroughly deserve his second nomination and will push Ejiofor and McConaughey close for the prize.

Courtesy of Anjoli Dey – http://www.anjolidey.co.uk – @anjolidey

And while Russell once again displays his well-exercised talent of casting and then getting the most out of his chosen ones, this is the first time he has been able to align all of his qualities in one feature. This is by far his funniest film and so hopefully won’t be his last collaboration with new writing partner Eric Singer. In this heightened milieu, the almost slapstick scenes of Bale painstakingly attaching his wig, Lawrence doing the house work while miming Live and Let Die, Cooper in curlers, a Mexican posing as an Arabian sheikh and Adams’s perpetual Lady Di-esque accent are all belly-laugh hilarious.

On the subject of environment, Russell’s vibrant decor and costumes are as perfect a backdrop for this caper, as the smoky bars and sweaty boxing halls were for The Fighter. And despite the weave of double-crosses and betrayals of trust that seam through American Hustle’s narrative, Russell avoids the dog-eared messiness that hounded Silver Linings and I Heart Huckabees.

And it’s this cogency and clarity of storytelling that transform American Hustle from a facile pastiche to possibly the most entertaining movie of the 2014 Academy Award campaign.

American Hustle; 2013; Dir: David O. Russell; Stars: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper; 138 mins; 9/10; Probable nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Christian Bale), Best Actress (Amy Adams), Best Supporting Actor (Bradley Cooper), Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Lawrence), Best Original Screenplay (David O. Russell and Eric Singer); Possible nominations: Best Cinematography (Linus Sandgren), Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design