American Hustle (2013)
I'd heard reports that this seemed a bit like a Scorcese film. "Goodfellas" was often referenced. And it's true, it is like that sort of Scorsese film.
Now I've got a confession to make. I don't like Scorcese films. At least, not any of the ones from that era. I don't get the appeal of "Goodfellas" and I thought Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone's characters were pretty evenly obnoxious in "Casino". There's this dreary superficiality to those films which simply does not appeal to me.
Now sadly, "American Hustle" has a very similar style, making it a very obvious tribute to a film I didn't like. There's a slightly lighter tone to "American Hustle" which, to be frank, was something of a relief. But there's another problem. There are three fantastic central performances here. Christian Bale as the veteran confidence trickster, Jennifer Lawrence as his beautiful but needy and enormously manipulative wife, and Jeremy Renner as a politician looking to expand his work for the community if he could only get a few more funds. Renner's performance is so great here that it's confusing why he is so flat as Hawkeye. (I'm inclined to suggest that Hawkeye is just a bland character in general no matter who you get on board to play him.)
Jennifer Lawrence gives perhaps her best performance ever. It's not a particularly big role but she completely owns it and rather steals the show. That being said, we also have an appearance from Robert De Niro here and he deserves full credit for his ability to walk into a scene in the middle of a film like this and instantly appear indomitable
The two central performances which don't really seem quite able to keep up are those from Bradley Cooper and Amy Adams. Don't get me wrong, they aren't bad actors and Amy Adams is clearly acting her little heart out. But the director insists on making these two characters the centre-point and it's not clear to me as a viewer why this should be. They aren't more central to the story and they certainly aren't as interesting as the other central characters. So why is my attention constantly directed in their direction?
There are also issues with the way the story is set up too. Our opening scene is right slap bang in the middle of the story so that later scenes can help to explain how we got to that point. The result? Well not only does the movie slow right down after that opening scene, but things are made rather duller because we already know what is going to happen. Hey, do you reckon that Bale and Adams might join Cooper in some kind of confidence trickster scheme? Oh wait a minute, we already know they will because of the opening scene. So much for suspense....
But the problems with the opening are nothing by comparison to the problems with the ending. You know those shameless confidence tricksters we were following at the start? The ones who've been spending the entire film lying through their teeth? Well they have a change of heart towards the end which would almost make you think the Hays Code was still in force. Look, if you want your characters to experience some kind of 'redemption' that's fine, but it has to be earnt.
"American Hustle" is a mixed bag and overall it's a bit of a mess. I feel like I gave "Silver Linings Playbook" a bit too much benefit of the doubt regarding its messiness, but at least the main focus was on Jennifer Lawrence's great performance there rather than leaving her in the background (only for her to steal the show anyway). I wouldn't say that this was a poor imitation of Scorsese because I didn't really like the Scorsese films it is based on, but I would say that it has a very poor sense of its own identity and ends up trying to juggle more balls than it can handle.
D+