Review: American Hustle

Inspired by real events and starting in the late 70s, Christian Bale (with a bad comb-over and “ET” stomach) plays a middle-aged con artist who along with his sexy partner/lover Amy Adams is forced to work for unorthodox FBI man Bradley Cooper in bringing down as many corrupt Jersey politicians and officials as possible. One man in their sights is passionate Jersey mayor Jeremy Renner, a family man who genuinely wants to do right by the city, but is willing to do the wrong thing to get there. Complicating matters is Bale’s immature, shrill wife Jennifer Lawrence (who is immediately jealous of Adams), as well as the involvement of the Miami mob, represented by Robert De Niro. Louis C.K. plays Cooper’s long-suffering FBI boss, Alessandro Nivola is Mr. C.K.’s superior, Michael Pena plays an FBI agent who poses as an Arab sheik, Shea Whigham is a criminal associate, and Anthony Zerbe appears briefly as a corrupt politician.

 

One of the bigger disappointments of 2013, this crime flick has some good performances, but director David O. Russell (the interesting “Three Kings” and “Silver Linings Playbook”, and the overrated “The Fighter”) and his co-writer Eric Warren Singer (“The International”, a mediocre Clive Owen vehicle) fall well short of the Scorsese crime picture standard that they are clearly inspired by. “Goodfellas” it ain’t, this one comes off as “Casino”-lite, and that’s a shame because I was really looking forward to this and expected something pretty special. That’s why it’s always good to go into a film free of expectations I guess, but that’s easier said than done. The film’s a bit of a poseur, really, it’s superficial and artificial, though there’s a pretty brilliant twist towards the end that I didn’t expect at all. Well done there.

 

The fake baldness and especially the protruding gut adopted by Christian Bale are particularly unconvincing and call too much attention to themselves (As does Jeremy Renner’s pompadour). Apparently Bale really did put on 40 pounds for the role, but the gut actually looks fake. It reminds me of some stars who do their own stunts for things that in the finished product either look faked, or you can’t really tell whether they did it or not anyway. Is it really worth putting on the pounds if it looks fake and seems heavy-handed? I guess Bale got to show off in front of “Raging Bull” himself, so maybe that’s all that mattered to Method Man Bale. Bully for you, dork. That’s a shame, because Bale’s performance is otherwise OK, and I’m really not a fan of the guy (I think he’s a terrible Batman/Bruce Wayne), as I can always hear the gears turning inside him with every performance. However, I do have to ask, if Bale needs to change so much about himself in order to play the role, is he really the right guy for it? It’s a question worth asking I think.

 

But it’s not just Bale’s “ET”-like visage calling attention to itself here, Russell goes all-out Scorsese with his soundtrack choices (no ‘Gimme Shelter’, though, strangely), but shows he hasn’t learned a damn thing from the man. He actually has Jennifer Lawrence sing along to ‘Live and Let Die’ in the film as it plays on the soundtrack. Why call attention to the soundtrack like that? It’s stupid, and Paul Thomas Anderson already did it in 1999 anyway. I have zero idea why Elton John’s excellent ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ is used at one point, it does not fit in here at all. In fact, there’s way too much soundtrack and not enough movie for my liking.

 

There’s certainly some things I liked about the film. The opening title card reading ‘Some of this actually happened’ is brilliant and hilarious. Bradley Cooper, once again not my favourite actor, is a lot better here than Bale. His is the most surprisingly strong performance in the film for me, along with “Silver Linings Playbook” it’s his best work. Amy Adams, meanwhile, looks absolutely sensational…no edible, in fact. It’s the sexiest performance she has ever given (Even if you count “Cruel Intentions 2”). I wouldn’t normally think of her as sexy per se. Beautiful, adorable, sweet, and a damn good actress, absolutely. But sexy? Yes here she’s dead sexy. Her English accent is imperfect, but she’s playing a shonky American con artist putting on a fake English accent to fool people who have probably rarely heard a real English accent, so it’s appropriate. If there’s one issue I have with her, it’s that she seems to have trouble getting rid of the British accent when speaking in her character’s normal American accent. But that’s a minor flaw in an otherwise very strong performance that probably deserved an Oscar except it was a tough year (And Our Cate was already owed one, damn it!). Yes, it’s weird that Jennifer Lawrence plays Bale’s jealous younger wife to Adams’ older mistress/business partner, but let’s face it, Lawrence would be hopeless in Adams’ role, and Adams is excellent in the role.

 

Lawrence is quite solid in her role, if maybe still a tad young. Jeremy Renner isn’t in all that much of the film, but he’s strong as always, so long as you can forget about the stupid hairdo. It’s an interestingly complex character he plays. Michael Pena is hilarious in a small role, too, though I wish the talented Shea Whigham were afforded a more interesting role, he’s an underrated actor. In other corners of the film, Louis CK has never been funnier (I don’t normally find him funny in the slightest), it’s great to know Anthony Zerbe is still alive, and it was nice to see Alessandro Nivola for what seems like the first time in about a decade. Where the hell has he been? Some have cited Walken as his influence here, but I swear Nivola has modelled his performance and vocal intonation on Alan Arkin, not Christopher Walken. Am I the only one? The film is undoubtedly bolstered by an excellent cameo from a very 70 years old Robert De Niro, even though his presence is yet another reminder of what this film is trying and failing to be. Still, it’s one of De Niro’s better performances in recent decades.

 

The film didn’t really grab me, the story isn’t as riveting as everyone involved seems to think. The screenplay to be honest was a bit problematic, going all over the place in the opening 30 minutes in particular, which is annoying. The fact that much of the film was improvised by the actors might help explain things. Improvisation is cool and all, but there’s got to be a clear direction adhered to surely, at the end of the day. I wanted to like this one a whole lot more than I eventually did. It’s actually a pretty average, if watchable film, and needed a lot more Jeremy Renner, Robert De Niro, Shea Whigham, and Michael Pena. The dual narration was kinda cool, though, and the performances by Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, and even Jennifer Lawrence are all good. I’ve heard the film was meant to be somewhat of a comedy, but I didn’t pick up on that in the slightest, so maybe I just didn’t ‘get’ this one.

 

Rating: C+