"She was the Picasso of passive-aggressive karate."

Hello Everyone :-)

‘American Hustle’ by David O’Russell. Rhyming Film Titles and Directors is just funny, I don’t care what anyone else says.

I found myself in the rare situation of having heard almost nothing about ‘American Hustle’ before I went to see it the other weekend. The only thing I knew was it’s the same guy that did ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ and has a super impressive cast list. Here’s how I got on with it.

Set in 1978 ‘American Hustle’ follows Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) who begin an affair and make a living by scamming people into applying for fake loans. When they’re caught the pair are made to work with FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) or face going to Prison.

A scheme is devised involving a fake Arab Sheikh looking for potential investments in America in order to entrap Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) who is campaigning to revitalize the gambling industry in Atlantic City. The trio go ahead with the plan but will Richie's over-eagerness to catch Carmine or Irving’s Pyromaniac Wife Rosalyn (the ever-wonderful Jennifer Lawrence) derail their operation?

‘American Hustle’ is a strange beast. To invert a common adage, it is less than the sum of it’s parts.

The performances are definitely the best part of ‘American Hustle’. As the ever lovely Mad Prophet Mark has said ‘American Hustle’ is a case of “Five-star performances, three-star film”.

Christian Bale puts in the kind of committed performance we’ve now come to expect from him and is excellent as Irving. Amy Adams successfully makes a character that could so easily have been deeply dislikeable very sympathetic. Jeremy Renner plays it well; his relationship with Irving is one of my favourite things in the movie. Bradley Cooper is fantastically batshit and his conversations with his long suffering Boss Stoddard Thorsen (a browbeaten Louis CK) are excellent.

The film is never more alive than when Jennifer Lawrence is on screen. She gets the smallest amount of screen time out of the main players and I found myself trying to will her onto the screen in places where the story was dragging.

One thing this film isn’t lacking is design. The period sets and costumes are spot on. From Bradley Cooper’s hilarious perm, Jeremy Renner’s massive collared suits to Amy Adam’s seemingly endless wardrobe of cleavage flaunting dresses it looked great. Also the soundtrack was fantastic. Never were the two elements better matched than when Sydney and Richie go to a disco and dance to Donna Summer’s seminal classic ‘I Feel Love’. Someone has taken a lot of time and care in getting ‘American Hustle’ to look and sound just so and they have done a fantastic job.

With all this fab styling and brilliant performances it’s all the more of a shame then when the plot doesn’t deliver. I couldn’t for the life of me tell you why David O’Russell has made the decisions he has. The story is based on the Abscam operations of the late 70’s early 80’s and when you read about the actual investigation it’s far more interesting than the story with which we are presented.

In the real events Mayor Angelo Errichetti (on whom Jeremy Renner’s character is based) had a reputation for committing crimes and during the Abscam operation offered to get the fake sheikh into illegal businesses such as money counterfeiting and drug smuggling. O’Russell, however, has made Carmine far more of an innocent who is doing all this for the good of the people. This makes the denouement all the more frustrating because Carmine doesn’t deserve what’s coming to him. What is this supposed to achieve? Is it trying to make us sympathise with the plight of politicians? If it is I wouldn’t be the first to say you’re fighting a losing battle. Is it trying to make us dislike Irving for ratting on his mate who gifted him a “Science Oven”? If it’s the latter why the hell have you spent all that time (and, even though it’s 40 minutes shorter than ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, it feels excruciatingly long) trying to make us like him and rehabilitate him after he cheats on his Wife?

Also Sydney, O’Russell pushes that character to the very edge of tolerable. We already don’t like her because she’s wrecked the home of Rosalyn (easily the most likable person in the film) but then she does this weird thing pretending she has an English accent and trying to win Richie over apparently for the hell of it, in the hands of a less capable actress that character would’ve been a complete car crash. You’re sat there trying to fathom all this out and then the simple truth dawns on you; none of it makes any sense.

For all it’s impressive costumes and awesome cast ‘American Hustle’ left me cold. It's uneven and it isn't up there with 'The Fighter' or 'Silver Linings Playbook' but it is worth seeing for Jennifer Lawrence alone. Funny in places, boring in others 'American Hustle' is entertaining... but only just.

Now I think I fancy some...

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)

1. So the 'Muppets: Most Wanted' Super Bowl slot was pretty awesome :-) The film is out on 21st March 43 days to go!

2. In part 1 of a bit of a Shailene Woodley news round up here's the trailer for 'Divergent'. I think this looks cracking :-) Drum banging feminist that I am I LOVE that this is another female lead action thriller. MORE OF THIS PLEASE!

3. Finally for today, tissues at the ready because the trailer for 'The Fault in Our Stars' has landed! I am a huge fan of this book, to me it is practically perfect in every way. I know that sound like I'm setting it up for a fail but I think the trailer looks fantastic. I bawled my eyes out so god knows what I'm going to be like come June. If you haven't already, read the book, it's wonderful.

That's all for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)

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