Grifting towards glory
138 minutes (MA15+)
David O. Russell ( The Fighter)
Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner
Leigh Paatsch
½ AMERICAN Hustle opens with the following statement: ‘‘Some of this actually happened.’’ Yes, this fantastic movie is based on a rather fantastical true story from the 1970s. But that’s not so important.
What is important about American Hustle is that something is always happening. At a running time of 135 minutes, that takes some doing.
It is a work that is perpetually alive, alert and aggressively attuned to entertaining an audience. For this reason alone, this funny, messy and vividly vibrant affair will stand as one of the best things to be released in 2013.
How to best describe the irrepressibly convoluted plot? That takes some doing as well. Let’s go with Argo meets GoodFellas meets The Sting, with all three getting on like a house on fire.
The story is very loosely based on the Abscam affair, a three- year FBI operation where clumsily corrupt politicians were ensnared by agents posing as Arab royalty.
Writer-director David O. Russell ( Silver Linings Playbook) uses the Abscam tale merely as a narrative honey pot.
Unusually, the filmmaker is not so interested in those big- time bears who can’t keep their greedy paws to themselves.
Instead, Russell wants us to get to know the small-time bees forever buzzing around this sticky trap.
The first we meet is middleaged con man Irv Rosenfeld (Christian Bale).
Between the hours of nine and five, Irv runs a chain of dry cleaners across NYC. Twenty- four- seven, he is fleecing anyone with a pulse and no idea about money.
Irv deals in forged art, high-interest loans and nonexistent investment opportunities. That’s when he’s not arranging his thinning hair in a comb- over so elaborate it borders on heritage architecture.
Looks can be deceiving. Just like Irv himself. However, when it comes to deception, his beautiful girlfriend Sydney Prosser ( Amy Adams) is in another league. Once she starts posing as a British aristocrat named Lady Edith — complete with a faultless plummy accent — Irv’s various scams start raking in millions.
That is, until this cunning couple hook the wrong big fish. Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) is actually an FBI agent. And he has serious plans for his latest catches: Irv and Sydney will become the prime bait for those pollies set to be reeled in by ‘‘the fake sheikhs’’.
Let’s abandon any further plot revelations right here. One of the distinct pleasures of American Hustle is its tendency to dash off in any number of directions in its relentless pursuit of a great scene.
In the second half of the movie in particular, many of these great scenes will be comprehensively owned by Jennifer Lawrence. She plays Rosalyn, the wife that Irv wishes he never had.
In a movie packed with crafty and crazy operators, this one young lady just might have them all covered.
Lawrence is arguably too pretty for the role, but too powerful to be denied. The outer limits of her untapped talent remain well out of sight.
The rest of the American Hustle ensemble also bring their A-games. A bald and bloated Bale is not content to let his endearingly grotesque appearance do all the hard work. His intuitive feel for Irv gives the film much of its scurrilous soul.
Adams and Cooper are almost on par with Bale, and share some cracking scenes as their characters fight a misplaced attraction throughout the movie.
Elsewhere in the supporting ranks, special mention must be made of Jeremy Renner as Carmine Polito, a right- minded mayor who finds himself on the wrong side of a bribe.
Perhaps the most significant endorsement that can be made of the acting excellence on display is that even the long- disgraced Robert De Niro recaptures all of his old brilliance in the space of one fleeting appearance here.
The period production design is so seductively ’70s it is ridiculous: perms, plunging necklines and polyester garments as far as the eye can see.
Linus Sandgren’s funky cinematography — not so much widescreen as widecollar — and Russell’s trademark command of controlled chaos wraps up a completely irresistible package.