Stayin' Alive in the 70's

It’s a movie about an assortment of struggling New Yorkers practicing their moves and doing what is necessary to survive in the city in the tough times of the mid-1970s.

It’s a movie about a group of small time con artists who get drawn into “the big con,” playing against the Mob and the Feds with some unexpected twists.

It’s a movie about the ordinary lives of the New York underworld where wives and kids and girlfriends all must be balanced with the job of being a criminal.

American Hustle is part Saturday Night Fever, part The Sting, and part Goodfellas - and perhaps an homage to all three.  A fictional story very loosely based on the Abscam stings of the late 1970s, the film follows a pair of small time grifters Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) who are roped into working for the FBI to perform stings on politicians to satisfy the ambitions of junior G-man Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). 

Jennifer Lawrence and Jeremy Renner have important supporting roles as Rosenfeld’s jealous wife and a good-hearted but crooked New Jersey mayor, rounding out a dream cast of acting talent.  All four main performers received Golden Globe nominations, and look for Oscar nods for Bale, Adams, and Lawrence.  One scene, a catfight between Adams and Lawrence in a hotel restroom, is an instant classic between the Streep and Close of their generation.

The art of the con is built “from the feet up” according to Rosenfeld, meaning it requires a complete commitment to the details of selling the lie as truth.  By that token, the last detail is the hair – and fittingly, the film opens with a potbellied Rosenfeld failing miserably to create a believable combover.  Director and co-writer David O. Russell (The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook) may be taking a swipe also at both the era of the 1970s and Hollywood itself.  What is a movie like American Hustle anyway, except a “big con” on the audience, making what is fiction and artifice believable?  (Indeed, the phrase "from the feet up" is taken from acting advice given Bale by Bob Hoskins.)

If there is a bone to pick about American Hustle, it may be that Russell hasn’t built his con “from the feet up.”  While he studiously avoids some of the most egregious clichés of the 1970s (it is reported he banned shag carpets, velvet paintings and lava lamps), he can’t resist the occasional laugh at the expense of the era (e.g., the “science oven” [microwave] and men in curlers).  He should have taken cues from Argo, which is set in the same era with a much stronger sense of authenticity. 

But that is a minor quibble with a film that is a tour de force of acting and writing.  American Hustle is a cinematic romp that is as outlandish as the decade it depicts.  This is a film you will pull out of the DVD case (or streaming library) in years to come just to enjoy the performances, even if the direction leaves it just short of a masterpiece.  Round it up to 4.0 stars out of 4.0.

P.S. Special kudos for the soundtrack, which ranges from Duke Ellington to Steely Dan to Donna Summer and sounds fresh, rather than reheated.