At this point in his career, David O. Russell is a beloved director, but what he isn’t is a consistent director. His movies tend to be a bit risky, messy even, and that can lead to wildly divergent opinions about his output. What you can always count on when you watch a David O. Russell movie is that you’re going to see something that’s entertaining and full of great performances though, and his newest release, American Hustle, is no exception to that rule. Far from it, actually, as this may be the most entertaining David O. Russell movie that’s been packed full of the largest amount of delightful performances he’s gotten out of a group of actors to date.
The story here sees Christian Bale and Amy Adams playing a couple of con artists, Bradley Cooper playing an ambitious FBI agent who’s looking to take them down, Jennifer Lawrence playing Bale’s neglected and short-fused wife, and Jeremy Renner playing the beloved mayor of Camden, New Jersey, who’s willing to bend a few rules if it’s in the best interest of his constituency. Each of these players has a conflicting set of motivations that clash over the course of this tale, an expansive one that involves casinos, mobsters, corrupt politicians, backstabbing, science ovens, and a mysterious though wisdom-filled ice fishing story as told by Louis CK. The crime-soaked story of American Hustle is easy enough to follow, but complex enough to keep you engaged with watching it all the way to the end, which makes for an entertaining ride. The real appeal of the picture is that it takes so many wildly charismatic actors, dresses them up in crazy outfits and silly hairdos, and then sets them free to have as much fun as they can while giving big, fantastic performances though. Everyone here is so good that you would be hard-pressed to pick out an MVP (except maybe Adams’ wardrobe).
Like Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook was a fairly simple romantic comedy that was lifted to great heights by actually being done well and by being better acted than most everything else in the genre last year, this year American Hustle does something very similar for the crime drama. Unlike that movie though, it’s never quite able to make you care deeply about its characters or reach any moments of emotional truth, so it falls short of the magical alchemy of volatile elements coming together that made Silver Linings Playbook a perfect movie. And still, while American Hustle fails to offer up anything substantial enough to really stick with you, it does manage to be maybe the most immediately entertaining movie that’s been released in 2013, and that certainly counts for something.
