Theater Whore: American Hustle

American Hustle - 8/10

There were quite a few reasons why I didn't want to see American Hustle. I'm not a big fan of Bradley Cooper. Or Jennifer Lawrence. They were in Silver Linings Playbook which is one of the shittiest films I've seen in the last few years that was given quite a bit of acclaim. Amy Adams I am starting to appreciate for her great acting (she was in Her which we saw the same night as this movie). And of course Christian Bale is great...except in Out Of The Furnace which I saw a couple of days ago. But it was playing at the same theater as the first movie we saw and if you have ever been to Century City Mall then you know that once you are inside you are stuck there for a while.

The film takes place in 1978 and is sorta kinda based on things that really happened. Irving Rosenfield (Bale) is a swindler but low level. He is good at what he does and isn't trying to take things to a huge level. He's just doing his thing. The start of the movie shows his routine to master the terrible comb-over he sports. Its just...bad. At a party he meets with Sydney Prosser (Adams) and he falls in love with her immediately. Then he almost scares her off when he talks about his business. She comes back and they work great together.

Though Irving is in love with Sydney because she is the bees knees it turns out that he is married to Rosalyn (Lawrence). Oh, she is so unlikable. For whatever reason she is always accidentally starting fires. She has a son that Irving adopted and loves. He is the only reason why he really won't leave her. She has a big mouth, drinks all the time, and just blurts bullshit that can get people killed. Which almost happens.

Richie DiMaso (Cooper) is an FBI agent that is dying to move on up but doing it in all the wrong ways. He knows that he has Irving and Sydney busted but just has to keep on pushing further and further until shit gets dangerous. He is on drugs because its the 1970's. His boss is played by Louis CK of all people which totally caught me off guard. He is great by the way. Richie and Sydney start to have a thing but I wasn't quite sure if it was real or not. Jeremy Renner plays Carmine Polito. I feel bad for him then I didn't then I did. He really did want to change and help the city but like most of the people in this movie they go about it the wrong way.

That's the thing with this movie. You start to question who is playing who. I didn't know how the hell this movie was going to end until the ending which is a nice change of pace. This movie was about two hours long but didn't feel like it. The music I have to say was really fun to listen to. This was funnier than I imagined it would be as well as far more suspenseful. One of the best films this year by default.

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