Sunday, December 22, 2013

American Hustle

"Some of this actually happened." These words open David O. Russell's American Hustle. These words guarantee that the viewer will be in for a very wild ride. These words promise a very insane film.

And Russell certainly held up to that promise. It's a film that revolves around living the American dream of living a life of wealth and luxury. Simple, sure, but nobody stated you had to earn that wealth and luxury legally...

It's amusing because when I first saw the trailer, I thought it would just be an abundance of bad fashion and worse hairstyles. Granted, I did get just that but Russell also provides a partly factual story. (I wasn't well-read on the real life story beforehand, but I still enjoyed the film.)

Even though his reputation with actors is less than stellar, Russell always knows how to get top-notch work from his actors. And American Hustle is no exception. We have Christian Bale abusing his body once again, Amy Adams shying very much away from her usual goody two-shoes roles, Bradley Cooper proving he's more than just a pretty boy movie star, Jeremy Renner being the unwitting pawn of a grand scheme, and Jennifer Lawrence basically stealing every scene she's in. They're all great but my attention stuck solely on Cooper. (I must also mention Louis C.K.'s scene stealing part and Robert De Niro's lone scene.)

It gets a bit chaotic towards the end but American Hustle is overall a very solid film. It's certainly not everyone's cup of tea but it's one hell of a film. It'll also be stuck in your head for God knows how long.

My Rating: ****1/2

2 comments:

  1. hmmm i thought it was quite messy and lacked substance, but it was very entertaining.

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  2. I saw the clip with Lawrence blowing up science oven and I really cannot wait to see this movie now!

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