David O. Russell has been having a great run of it lately, with the excellent THE FIGHTER and the very good SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, his films have been awarded with critical praise as well as awards. The film-maker is back with another classic in AMERICAN HUSTLE, and this one is bound to get similar praise as his former films. The man makes films that are very different from each other, but they have one very important element in common – characters.
All these films have very interesting characters, ones that are crazy to be around but also really good to be around. AMERICAN HUSTLE may have the best group of characters out of the three films, even though they have a lot of the same actors. For me, this is Russell’s masterpiece, he’s gotten all these elements to work, including a really fun and crazy plot, which shouldn’t have worked but it does.
The plot here is a little complex and honestly the less you know going in the better the experience is. Basically we have two con artists with Irving (Christian Bale) and Sydney (Amy Adams), their exploits get picked up eventually by the FBI. Agent DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) wants them to work with him exposing white collar crime and catching criminals in order to avoid their own charges. But things get very crazy when DiMaso wants to target Mayor Polito (Jeremy Renner), and corruption within politics and the hustle goes from one extreme to another.
The beauty of this really is these characters that we are given, each is very much developed and has their own strange quirks. They mix well, these actors have amazing chemistry together, which makes that mix all the more intriguing. The characters we get to know first are Irving and Sydney, two characters who are alike in many ways but generally aren’t ones the audience may go for. However spending time with these two, their motivations are really kind of understandable and these performances make them likeable in a weird way. Then we have the insane DiMaso, he’s wanting to make a name for himself and will stop at nothing to get there. He wants to succeed because he’s an agent living at home with his mother. We have Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), the wife of Irving, she is another nutcase who just wants to be loved and not live a lonely life. Mayor Polito just wants what is best and unfortunately gets caught up in the mess, but some how he seems very genuine.
The motivations for these characters is very clear, they are not level headed individuals and from the get go the audience is fully aware these plans or hustles are just going to cause a world of hurt for some people. It is intense to watch, as more people get involved, the worse things feel, and as it is with films you get invested in you begin to get protective and worried for these people. With such an array of characters on paper it surely wouldn’t seem like this would work but David O. Russell and his cast and crew have carved something special here and against the odds it works extremely well. It has drama and it has comedy, the two things you do expect from the man, and somehow this ends up being a lot more humorous than one might anticipate. The laughs are great and no they aren’t all based on the amazing hair the cast have, or the incredible authentic 70’s wardrobe, it comes in the situations and the dialogue (which I believe was improved a lot).
With a cast of this magnitude does this writer even need to mention how fantastic they all are? Christian Bale as he does becomes this character of Irving, not only with the looks but with how he presents himself and acts, he really did disappear into this role and if you didn’t know if was him you may not even recognise him. He brought a lot to the table as Irving, he seemed to have a deep understanding of the character and brought out his best and worst, Irving you may very well be one of the best characters of the year. Amy Adams to me felt very different than other work she has done recently, she is a great actress and she continues to stretch herself and try new things. She is wonderful as Sydney, a perfect match in every way for Irving. The woman really put a lot across with her body language and facial features, the character didn’t need to talk because you could feel deep down what she was feeling.
DiMaso may not have been a huge stretch for Cooper but he was perfectly suited to the character. He made this madman very unpredictable and someone that the audience has less trust with than the actual con artists of the film – quite an achievement. Mayor Polito is a role that is very new for Renner, and he really nailed it. The man can do all sorts of characters, and believe it or not he made for a very believable Italian/American Mayor. From the trailers, I remained a little sceptical but the man proved that he’s bursting from the seams with amazing talent. Jennifer Lawrence, easily one of the best actresses working today did her thing here, she made this off the rails character and really just went for it. Much respect for that girl.
AMERICAN HUSTLE may very well be one of the years best films, it is a lot of fun and it is highly entertaining. Go in for the weird hair and stay for a great film! David O. Russell has indeed done it again, and may the man continue to make such interesting and character driven films. This is a film very worthy of its multiple Golden Globe nominations and I do hope to see some Oscar nominations there too.
Rating:
The Super Network 