20131230: Drama Review--American Hustle

American Hustle

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 137 minutes, drama.
2. IMDB: 8.2/10.0 from 17,027 audience ratings.  Estimated budget: 40 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 94% on the meter; 82% liked it from 63,626 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: not yet, 20131229.
5. Directed by: David O. Russell.  Written by: Eric Singer and David O. Russell.
6. Starring: Christian Bale as Irving Rosenfeld, Jennifer Lawrence as Rosalyn Rosenfeld, Amy Adams as Sydney Prosser, Bradley Cooper as Richie Dimaso, Jeremy Renner as Mayor Carmine Polito, Elizabeth Rohm as Dolly Polito, Louie C. K. as Stoddard Thorsen, Robert De Niro (uncredited) as Victor Tellegio.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Irving is a semi-legitimate business man who owns a glass replacement business plus several dry cleaning stores.  He sells paintings of dubious provenance, and 'arranges' loans that might otherwise be hard to get.  Irving is married to Rosalyn, but is invigorated by his falling in love with the talented Sydney.  Sydney wants Irving to leave Rosalyn, but recognises that Rosalyn is an even better con artist than either of them.  Working with Sydney, Irving's various dealings go better, and the quality of clients improves.  Their future looks bright and rich. 


2. FBI agent Richie Dimaso pulls a sting on the pair, and uses the evidence collected to leverage Irving and Sydney to help the FBI.  What Richie wants is for Irving to mastermind a sting against some New Jersey politicians, including Mayor Polito.  This effort moves forward.  When it was about to bear fruit, Richie fouls the sting by deviating from Irving's plan, and Carmine leaves the meeting.


3. Irving and Sydney save the day.  Irving gets Carmine to trust him; this was a major effort.  Sydney helps the FBI come up with just enough good faith money to convince Carmine and his people that they have a serious investor (a sheik) to re-energise the rebuilding of Atlantic City.  Irving's friendship with Carmine continues to deepen, and Carmine insists that Rosalyn get to know him and Dolly socially.  Rosalyn takes to this social whirl very quickly.


4. Richie loses his composure when things work despite his foulups.  He keeps pushing the FBI to make larger attempts to get bigger stings. He also pushes Sydney harder to leave Irving, and be with him. On the other side of the coin, news traveled fast in gambling circles, and large figures such as Victor Tellegio join the field of interest.  Victor insists on 10 million in good faith money, and that the sheik become a US citizen practically overnight to ensure that everyone is satisfied about the legitimacy of the operation.


5. To resolve the citizenship issue would require an act of Congress.  To get that through in a short amount of time, some shuffling of money might expedite the process.  Irving and Sydney help set this up. The FBI is definitely interested in who accepts such money and who does not.  The 10 million in good faith money gets handled in another operation.


6. In the end, who comes out as winners?  Will the FBI arrest some Congressmen?  Will they arrest any mob figures?  Will Irving and Sydney come out of this unscathed?


7. The ending is nicely written, as was the entire movie.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: A tense, dramatic thriller with fine plot and character exposition.
2. Five stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Good sets, good camera work.


2. Sound: 10/10 Excellent.  Some wonderful choices of incidental music.


3. Acting: 10/10 Outstanding: Christian Bale, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Elizabeth Rohm, Bradley Cooper.  Wonderful, powerful, short performance by Robert De Niro.


4. Screenplay: 10/10 Wonderful, tightly knit, complicated story.  The two hours and 17 minutes seemed just right.  Character development and story development were top notch.