Monday, June 2, 2014

American Hustle

Given my fondness of caper movies, it was inevitable that I'd finally get around to American Hustle, starring Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, and Amy Adams's breasts. Very loosely based on the Abscam investigations of the 1970s, it follows con-man Irving Rosenfeld (Bale), and his partner Sydney Prosser (Adams), who are blackmailed into working for an FBI man (Cooper). In addition, Jennifer Lawrence is stunning as Bale's wife, and Jeremy Renner is spot-on as a New Jersey politician. It had a very densely plotted, stunningly well-written script, was excellently acted (Academy Award nominations for Bale, Cooper, Adams and Lawrence), brilliantly shot, and has an exceptionally complete 1970s soundtrack. I can't think of anything to criticize about the effort.


(Note added later, which makes me even more impressed: IMDb reports that some of the key scenes were actually improvised. That director David Russell trusted his actors that much and they trusted each other enough to pull it off is amazing.)

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