My review of David O. Russell’s (Silver Linings Playbook, The Fighter) American Hustle will be much quicker than some of my other recent reviews. This movie isn’t exactly flying under anyone’s radar. As of this post, it most likely will earn Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director (though it probably will win neither) and has a chance to land nominations for four of its actors, though the only one that seems certain is Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook, Catching Fire) for Best Supporting Actress. There are many critics out there (currently rated as 93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. who will rave about this movie, including Richard Roeper, who listed this as his best movie of 2013. I am, therefore, in the minority. Perhaps the expectations were so astronomically high going into this movie, perhaps it was I had watched The Wolf of Wall Street just two days prior (a movie that dwarfed this one), or perhaps it was that I was just bored. Still, for whatever reason, I was very, very, very underwhelmed.

The movie tells us early on that “some of this story is true.” I’m not entirely certain which parts are true, and I was not encouraged to do the research afterward about which parts were and which weren’t, unlike The Wolf of Wall Street, which I researched feverishly afterward. I compare the two movies because both deal with Americans attempting to fraud other Americans out of their money. Both lead actors get caught up in their greed and are investigated by the FBI. What’s interesting is that The Wolf of Wall Street was a three-hour movie that felt like two hours, while American Hustle was a two-hour movie that felt like three hours.

I read a bit about this movie going in. The preview made the movie look good, but I never felt like I knew what the movie was about. I read that the movie was more about the dynamics between the characters, who were hustling when they were hustling each other, and why they were hustling each other than the movie’s overall plot. There will be no spoilers here since I’m pretty sure a good chunk of this movie went straight over my head. Christian Bale (The Dark Knight Rises, The Fighter) stars as Irving Rosenfeld, a man who started as a nobody and hustled his way to somebody. While he owned a series of seemingly legitimate dry cleaners, most of his money was made by selling counterfeit art or promising loans he had no intention of ever fulfilling. He takes a down payment from individuals who cannot secure a loan anywhere else. What does Irving guarantee these desperate people? That the $5000 non-refundable check that they give him will net loans in the $25,000, $40,000, $50,000, etc. range. He is defrauding these people and his crimes, in some fashion, catch up with him.

The other players in this movie are Rosalyn (Lawrence) as Irving’s wife, Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams – Doubt, Sunshine Cleaning) as Irving’s crime partner and love interest, Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook, Limitless) as the FBI agent investigating the pair, and Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner – The Town, The Hurt Locker) as the Mayor of Atlantic City.

While I didn’t like this movie, there is still an audience I would recommend it to. If you like movies like Oceans 11 (intelligent, bloodless crime movies), you’d probably like this. Also, it might be worth seeing the set and costume designs alone. Try to picture Atlantic City 1978 and the people you’d expect to find, and you’ll find that this movie is almost spot-on. Finally, the acting is really good. Considering the names in this movie, it should be. With that said, the acting is good, but I wouldn’t call it great. Lawrence will get more accolades than the others, but her performance was too over the top. Outside of Bale, Renner gave the best performance, but he is the one who isn’t being talked about at all. Adams and Cooper were both outstanding as well. The acting, at least, kept the scenes lively during O. Russell’s very drab storytelling.

Plot 7/10
Character Development 6.5/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 6.5/10
Directing  6.5/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 9/10
Hook and Reel 5/10 (I was never able to get into this movie)
Universal Relevance 8/10
75.5%

Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie

• The Wolf of Wall Street
• Silver Linings Playbook
• American Gangster
• The Old Man and the Gun
• War Dogs