In the opening scene of American Hustle, Irving Rosenfeld (played by Christian Bale) stands in front of a mirror perfecting an epic comb-over with his hair. He's meticulous, taking his time, even gluing in some fake hair for good measure. The scene is hilarious, and it sets the stage perfectly for the rest of the movie.
Irving is a fraud, just like everyone else in this movie.
Irving owns a small chain of dry cleaners, but he makes most of his money through phony art deals and personal loan scams. He's got a wife (played by Jennifer Lawrence) and an adopted son in Long Island, but his heart belongs to his partner in crime Sydney Prosser (played by Amy Adams), another fraud.
Sydney's an Albuquerque transplant who came to New York dreaming remaking herself as a member of high society. After meeting Irving and learning about his business model, she decides to don a fake accent and become Lady Edith Greensley, a British aristocrat with London banking connections, believing (correctly) that such an association would help with the fraudulent loans.
Eventually, they try to scam the wrong guy -- Richie DiMaso (played by Bradley Cooper), an ambitious and delightfully hotheaded FBI agent. Richie catches them in the act, but proposes that they help him catch other scam artists in return for avoiding jail times. The result of their combined efforts is the FBI's Abscam operation, a real-life endeavor that eventually eventually lead to the convictions of seven members of Congress for bribery. The movie, however, is a fiction.
Richie is also fraud. He's an underling at the FBI and he concocts this operation and let's it grow in size and complexity, even going around his superiors to do so, as a means of raising his stature. Like Iriving, he sports a fake hairstyle, putting his hair in curlers every night, which is hilarious, by the way. Eventually, he falls for Sydney, though he doesn't know she's not British or, for that matter, that her name is Sydney. This, of course, is part of Sydney's plan, both to keep Richie close and to punish Irving. And, it works. Richie is sucked in by her life as a scam artist -- the parties, the dance clubs -- even though he's got a plain fiance stashed away at home.
In the end, all three lead characters are scamming each other and the movie is a race to see who will scam who last. The most honest character in the movie is the original target of their operation, Camden, New Jersey Mayor Carmine Polito (played by Jeremy Renner), who, from the outset, takes bribes and offers them to others.
All of this plays out with a rare kinetic intensity, playing fast and loose as the story unfolds. Though the plot is detailed and convoluted, the movie feels a little sloppy at times, which is actually a big part of its charm. This isn't Oceans Eleven or The Sting. No one in the movie is all that smart no one has an over-arching plan. Sure, there are scams and double-crosses, but they are made up as they go along.
This on-the-fly construction is the genius of director David O. Russell, who has really come into his own with his last three movies -- The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, and, now, American Hustle. Don't get me wrong, he was great before that, too. But, with these movies, he's established himself as one of the best mainstream filmmakers around.
As with Russell's previous films, the acting in this movie is superb across the board. Adams and Russell give career-best performances, both worthy of Oscar consideration, though, from the looks of things, they're not likely to get it. Bale is great as always, though, to be honest, it's probably his second best performance of the year, behind Out of the Furnace. Renner is also very good.
However, the most memorable performance in the movie is that of Jennifer Lawrence, playing Irving's needy, passive-aggressive wife who gets just involved enough in the operation to screw things up. She's a firecracker, an absolute scene-stealer. She's destined to receive her third Oscar nomination for this role. And, as I've said before, she's one step closer to world domination.
In the end, the movie drags out a bit too long and the final scam is one you should probably see coming if you've seen movies like this before. But, it never stops being fun and the characters never stop pulling you in. This is what happens when good filmmakers and great actors get together.
