American Hustle

My Grade:  B-

Silver Linings Playbook is my favorite movie of 2012 and one of my top ten of all time. With that being said, I was quite excited when David O. Russell teamed up with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence again for American Hustle. Combine that personal excitement with all the awards season hype, and you’d better believe I was stoked to see this film. Once I finished, though, I felt betrayed. At first I thought I was let down because of the exceedingly high expectations I had for the film. Then, upon further contemplation, I came to the realization that this is a highly overrated film and nobody seems to acknowledge that. This con movie cons the audience (and critics) into thinking it’s a better film than it really is.

Hustle is a con thriller comedy (how’s that for a genre mashup). The problem is, though, that it doesn’t really work in any of these genres. As a con thriller, it’s just confusing. Con movies are supposed to throw a lot of twists and turns at you, but Hustle becomes a jumbled mess. Who’s conning whom? What’s with the British accent? Is Bradley Cooper a good guy or bad guy and why is he yelling at everyone? And what in the world does Robert DeNiro’s character add to the film? From a comedy standpoint, there are funny parts but other parts are clearly supposed to be funny and don’t hit. It’s almost as if the filmmakers had some inside jokes that they put in the film that the general audience is not in on.

All those issues have to do with the writing. From a story perspective the script is lazy but the dialogue is stellar. First of all, if you’re going to start a film at a midway point in the story, then go back and show how we got there, that midway point better be wild. When Anchorman 2 opens with Ron Burgundy, fully dressed in his suit, getting attacked by a shark, I want to see how that happened. When American Hustle opens with a con to pay off a governor and the governor doesn’t take the money... who cares? Just start the film from the start of the story.

Like I said, though, the dialogue is spectacular. So is the set design, costuming, cinematography, and everything else that contributes to the look of the film... yea, even the hair. David O. Russell captures the time period perfectly. Also, the acting is out of this world (as is to be expected from this kind of star power). The only problem I have is that there wasn’t enough Jennifer Lawrence. Her character didn’t make a lot of difference in the narrative, but she stole every scene she was in and delivered most of the laughs. 

For all the problems this film has, I enjoyed the majority of my 138 minutes in the theater. It’s just plain fun at times but it isn’t as good as it thinks it is. Case and point:  the reveal near the end of their buddy being the lawyer is supposed to be this ‘aha’ moment and you immediately say to yourself, “I get it!” Then, however, you think more about it and you can’t help but wonder how they got the office, why they were even in that office, who they were ultimately trying to con... the list goes on.

Overall, American Hustle looks great and features solid dialogue and some fantastic performances, but the story is sloppy and confusing. The actors are all deserving of their Oscar nominations and I would probably vote for this film in Costume Design and Production Design; but I can’t get behind the nominations for Best Picture or Best Original Screenplay. Also, I’m not sure how it can be up for ‘original screenplay’ when it’s loosely based on a true story. But that’s a discussion for another time.