American Hustle (2013)

With a cast littered in stars, from 'Hunger Games' actress Jennifer Lawrence, to the 'Avengers 'Jeremy Renner, 'American Hustle' had the clean cut promise of being this year's 'Now You See Me'; assurances of drama, wit, intelligence, shock! We wanted sensuality dripping off our screens, passion pulsating from the heels of the long legged girls who strut across our screen, mocking the deservedly mocked, for all their smug idiocy and fool-hardy misplaced trust. I, myself, anticipated a long, drawn out scheme, executed perfectly, stealing thousands of glittering dollars from the grubby hands of the band's ideal victim, sauntering off in the end, proving to the world that life can be clever, if only taken from the right perspective.

I got a 70's fashion disaster in sleazy America, with an overweight man and a woman with a poor accent, working in a dry cleaners.

Main character Irving Rosenfeld, lives, breathes and eats money; escaping the lives of his depressed and neurotic wife (Lawrence), and small, half-neglected son Danny, neither of whom are willing to divorce him from their existence, despite his wish for them to do so. Christian Bale plays an interesting performance here, not quite moving, but not quite laughable either. His character seems to portray desperation for the predominance of the film, which does come off well, but this seems to be the only emotion he conveys. His beautiful wife Sydney, played by 'Leap Year's' Amy Adams has a slightly more in-depth role, acting as not only a real life partner, but a fake British business partner, a seductive criminal mastermind, and an awkward if kindly step-mother to Danny. The one scene I would personally commend both her, and her on-screen counterpart, rogue FBI agent Bradley Cooper, on,is the pin-drop silence of the almost sex-scene between the two, the 'so close and yet so far' atmosphere becoming almost tangible within both the characters and the audience itself.

It should also be said, however, that Cooper does play his role well; for the insanity that is his role, anyway. His heart set on catching the two hustlers, his character Richie drives himself wild,using and abusing them to catch further scam-artists in the act, from low-money art thieves, to highly complex corruption cases within the political field of Jersey. His sweaty, yet stupidly ignorant portrayal is believable as a character, if a little high maintenance, but in the end, his downfall is satisfying to say the least.
A personal favourite amongst this bewildering cast is, possibly, the only half-decent character of the lot. Renner plays a sweet, if a little clumsy Mayor Carmine Polito, who from the very beginning shows himself to be a hands down family man, taking bullets both for his people, and for the people holding the gun, in this case. Whilst he does get a decent amount of screen time in this film, enough for the audience to warm to him anyway, if I were being honest, I would've preferred to see him in the starring role instead, rather than the depressing and 'sore-thumb' castings of Irving in the mix. Jennifer Lawrence is another, for though her acting is, as ever, flawless, her character appears to be walking contradiction of mental war-zone, and intelligence through ineptitude, as though she spends her day whining and sobbing over her depression and crippling social anxiety, when required of her, she willing and confidently storms down a party with Irvine, meeting Carmine's family with the ease of a high-class socialite, frustrating both the audience and the supporting characters apparently, judging by their reactions to the scene.

Even the plot itself is sticky, and awkward. No one seemed quite sure which heist they performing at any given time. There seemed to be too much going on, it was too busy. There were love triangles where they needed to be less, and there were less crimes than needed to be committed. Far from the gripping, slick scenes of 'Now You See Me', this was an un-enjoyable mish-mash of sober comedy attempts, and confusing gaping storylines, none of which had any great impact on the audience as a whole. If I were to award it in terms of stars, there would be few of those too.