Some of this con actually happened

AMERICAN HUSTLE (2013)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
(Shared with 12 Years a Slave as my selection for Best Film of 2013)

I've often said that the best films are the ones dependent on the characters to motivate the narrative, to drive it rather than the narrative driving them. David O. Russell is a writer and director who knows this all too well. Though I've only been privy to Russell's early work up until "Three Kings," and have since been privy to one of his most stellar, humanistic works, "Silver Linings Playbook," I can say with complete assurance that "American Hustle" is an unforgettable, emotionally draining and downright dazzling masterpiece - a film that unfolds with crackling intensity and crackerjack storytelling not to mention supremely unsavory characters who dare us to like them and sympathize with them.

Right at the start of the film, I knew I was in for a wild ride thru bad 1970's hair and sparkling, glitzy costumes. Christian Bale is Rosenfeld, a con-artist with a comb over who participates in nutty surveillance scenarios with a glib FBI agent, Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper with perm hair). DiMaso wants to make a name for himself, insists on inflating the FBI's budgetary concerns for wild setups that involve a fake Arab sheik (and a scam known as Abscam) and the boisterous, caring New Jersey mayor (Jeremy Renner, a major departure from his heroic roles) whom they convince to renovate Atlantic City. This involves some major persuasion from both the FBI and the mayor, which includes wiring two million dollars to a mobster, renting a luxury jet for an hour and using the whole floor of a ritzy hotel for illegal transactions. Hopefully the fake sheik, one of two, knows some Arabic too.

Other members of this con within a con come into play. Amy Adams, in the most electrifying performance of her career, is Rosenfeld's mistress, Sydney, who adorns a fake British accent and immerses herself in the whole con game right from the start. She loves it, whether it is the mink coats, the flashy parties, persuading clients to fork over money, etc. Even after she is caught in these fraudulent scams and partakes in essentially scamming for the federal government, she still loves it - there is a thrill in the allure and the danger of it. Less enthused by all the hoopla is Rosenfeld's emotionally aching and nervously jittering and seemingly anti-social wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence, a marvel of a performance from an actress whom I have the deepest admiration), who hates Sydney and hates her husband too.

Some critics have compared this to Scorsese's "GoodFellas" but that is only fitfully on the surface - "American Hustle" is not as daring or as kinetic as any similar Scorsese tales of excess and hubris. What makes "American Hustle" far more tantalizing than Scorsese's films, however, is that director David O.Russell (and co-writer Eric Warren Singer) sympathizes with his characters and gives them emotional weight - this is one of the few recent American films where I felt like I was really listening to people who listen to each other. There is genuine heartbreak in each character, from Sydney's own manipulative games that barely conceal her love for Rosenfeld, to Richie DiMaso's hope for love and a romp in the hay with Sydney, to Rosenfeld's own heart problems and his desire to have custody of his son, to Rosalyn's wounded and pained life that is momentarily relieved when she listens to Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die," to the New Jersey mayor with a big family who doesn't want to let anyone down, least of all the state of New Jersey.

"American Hustle" also does something Scorsese's films never do - it forgives the characters' trespasses. Whereas Scorsese purposely distances us from clinging to his characters like Henry Hill or most recently Jordan Belfort in "Wolf of Wall Street" so as to observe their actions and make our own judgments, David O. Russell is the apologist, the one who forces the viewer to get close, to feel like his characters are one of us and to spring a touch of hope. Added to this is stunningly alert filmmaking that whips us around from one edge of the screen to other, and yet O. Russell manages to convey just as much with stillness when needed. The performances are vibrant and crackle and pop with the sensation of living a life (Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper should've won a special Academy Award). Along with David Mamet's "House of Games," an American classic in my mind about how con men really operate, "American Hustle" is the most fun I've ever had with the art of the con.