American Hustle(2013) Film Review

Rating: 4 Stars out of 4, Thumbs Up.

Rated R For Pervasive Language, Some Sexual Content And Brief Violence.

2hrs 18min/138min.

143 uses of the F-word.

Rosalyn Rosenfeld: "Life is ridiculous. And you know that I would never say anything bad about your father in front of you, but your father is a sick son-of-a bitch."

Danny Rosenfeld: "Daddy's a sick son-of-a-bitch?"

Rosalyn Rosenfeld: "Don't repeat that... but yes."

Some Of This Actually Happened.

                                                          -Opening Title card for American Hustle

All throughout the year of 2013, I kept judging to quickly as to what my favorite film of the year was. First it was Pain & Gain, then Spring Breakers, then Kick-Ass 2. It took me a lot of thinking and a lot of other movies to view before I finally found the one movie of 2013 that I hold above all the rest. A film that's better then the 3 aforementioned films, Prisoners, Frozen and The Wolf Of Wall Street combined. Ladies and Gentlemen, my pick for the best film of 2013 goes to..... American Hustle. Everybody's favorite film of the year seemed to be an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture. It would be Gravity(A great film) for some, 12 Years A Slave(Still unseen by me at the time of this writing), The Wolf Of Wall Street, Dallas Buyers Club(Another great film) or this. It's understandable because 2013 was an exceptional year for films(A best & worst list is coming soon).

Irving Rosenfeld(Christian Bale) is a con man with a beer gut and a comb-over. He soon finds the woman of his life in Sydney Prosser(Amy Adams) who joins Irving by creating an alter-ego named Lady Edith Greensly who has bank connections in London. Irving also has a wife at home, Rosalyn(Jennifer Lawrence) and has adopted her young son Danny. One day, they're caught in the act by FBI agent Richard "Richie" DiMasso(Bradley Cooper) who requests their help in a mission known as ABSCAM, which is to take down crooked government officials, including New Camden mayor Carmine Polito(Jeremy Renner). However, this proves to be a problem for Irving, due to his new friendship with Carmine and the fact that DiMasso wants Sydney for himself.

What breathes so much life into American Hustle are the performances and the personalities of the characters. Christian Bale is the star performer. He digs into the role of Irving, a man who looks like he has nothing, but really, has everything he could ever want. The Boston-esque accent is pulled off 100%. The makeup and hair design for this character is exquisite. Irving is one of my favorite characters in film of 2013.



Sydney Prosser/Lady Edith Greensly is divinely pulled off by Amy Adams. Prosser is a conflicted character, not knowing what she really wants in life, nor who she wants to be. If you listen closely, in her lines of dialouge throughout the film, She switches accents. When she's talking on the phone to Richie, she speaks in a British accent, but switches to her American accent without anyone, nor her, really even noticing. This has to be Adams' best performance, along with Bale.



Richard "Richie" DiMasso is a bit of a Wildcard. He's calm when you first meet him, but as the film goes on, his mood constantly swings from calm to bitterly angry at the drop of a hat. One moment in the film, his boss(Louis C.K.) refuses to give him what he wants in order to catch Carmine in the scam. So, after many attempts to secure a hotel suite at The Plaza and a specific amount of money, he goes to his boss, beats him with a telephone, and threatens to shoot him. This performance proves that Cooper is more than just a pretty face.


Carmine Polito is a bit crooked. There's no denying it, no matter how nice the guy is. Jeremy Renner, after performing as Hawkeye in Marvel's The Avengers, he has solidified himself as a dramatic performer with his role as Carmine. Polito is a genuinely nice guy and you would hate to see him get caught. Renner isn't tin the film a whole lot(around 30-35 minutes of screen time), but when you see him, you warm up to him, but also are saddened because you know, down the line, he might get caught.


Rosalyn Rosenfeld is the most unpredictable of them all. Poetically portrayed by the wonderful Jennifer Lawrence, Rosalyn is consistently getting herself caught up in things she shouldn't be. She's constantly ruining things and almost burns down the house twice. The best part in the entire film is when Lawrence does her own rendition of the classic Wings song, "Live and Let Die". Lawrence is not in the film very much either(around 20-25 minutes of screen time), But it's how she spends the time is what really matters.


The music...my God, The music! This film has the best soundtrack in any film released in 2013. The film features great, REAL music like "Live and Let Die", "A Horse With No Name", "Blue Moon", "Straight No Chaser", "Delilah", "Papa was a Rollin' Stone", "White Rabbit" and "Long Black Road". I apologize if this following quote offends you, but I found it really funny. There's a guy named Brad Jones who goes by The Cinema Snob online. He has a side series of Midnight Screenings where he and his friends go and see and review the newest films in their car. During the review of American Hustle, you learn that Brad is a huge fan of Disco and 70's Music, to which he says, "It's not just my d***, my whole body goes erect when I hear 70's music." The way the characters interact doesn't feel scripted and doesn't feel forced, and it works so well, whereas a similar 70's set true story film Argo, while fantastic, did feel like Ben Affleck just talking to John Goodman and Alan Arkin. In American Hustle I believe that Christian Bale is Irving Rosenfeld and he is talking to Sydney Prosser, or Richie DiMasso, or Rosalyn Rosenfeld , or Carmine Polito.

The movie has wonderful costumes and wonderful set designs, making you feel like you're right there in 1978. I love Irving's different colored tuxes. I will admit though, it did get a little distracting with the excessive amount of cleavage between Adams and Lawrence. Richie's disco suits are highly entertaining and seeing a 1970's designed television brings a smile to my face. The Supporting performances are great. Louis C.K. is wonderful, giving both a comedic and dramatic performance. There's a great running joke in the film where Louis C.K. tries to tell Cooper a story about his brother going Ice-fishing. Micheal Pena makes a fun small role as a man trying to pose as The Shiek. SPOILER ALERT!!! Robert DeNiro makes a really good and unexpected cameo that, when I first saw the film, didn't recognize it was him unril 2 minutes into the scene. The film may have a long running time, but, like The Wolf Of Wall Street, it doesn't bother you one ounce. That's rare. Movies that are really long, most of the time, the movie wastes most to all of it. Not American Hustle. American Hustle has the perfect running time of 138 minutes. Not too short, not too long, just right.

American Hustle is like a painting. It's so beautifully put together that you can't help but stop and stare. It's so artistically well done that everything blends together like the colors of said painting. Everything down to Christian Bale's facial hair to comb over, to beer gut is so authentic it's beautiful. American Hustle is the absolute best film of 2013. It's so astonishingly breathtaking and beautifully well done. Just like a painting.