February 8: American Hustle (2013 -- David O. Russell)

★★★

At base, this is not a subtle film; the entire movie revolves around Rosalyn’s fingernail polish.  She likes this particular cosmetic because it’s beautiful and smells good, but there’s a hint of dirt and decay you can smell in it, and this corruption is what lends it the allure.  Rosalyn explains this at expositional length during a night on the town in case the viewers might miss the obvious blend in all the characters. Not only is the message itself clear in the film, but the symbolic expression of it is, too.

But if not subtle, American Hustle is very fun and full of likable characters working their way though life with their vices and virtues.  Christian Bale is a terrific middling con artist, very capable at the small-scale cons he aims for.  Balding and beer-bellied in the role, Bale still manages to show us how Irving can have sex appeal for someone as vivacious as Sydney while we see his good, moral side constantly conflict with his con side.  Adams does a similarly convincing job with Sydney.  Beautiful, caught between wanting to trust but lying because she doesn't, Sydney oscillates between Irving and Richie, loving yet manipulating both.  And Cooper renders his FBI agent as likewise flawed, wanting do the ethical thing but thoroughly enjoying taking liberties with the law.  All these characters are the mix of good and the bad which we hear about in Rosalyn’s description of her fingernail polish.  Even Rosalyn herself means well and loves Irving as she frustrates and manipulates him.

The technical elements here also add a lot to American Hustle.  In addition to Bale’s outstanding acting, both Adams and Cooper create complex characters that engage.  The camera work and editing make the film fun, too.  Russell’s camera tracks and stands still during meetings and dialogs, and it swoops and rocks to participate in parties and dancing.  It can subjectively take in a new character “from the feet up,” as Irving says, and it can linger, faintly, on a woman’s breasts before moving to her face.  The camera participates in storytelling at times and, at other times, it just adds humor.  It’s fun to see this story though this lens.  And the soundtrack, too, adds to the pleasure.  The sound is sometimes an ironic commentary on the action, and at other times, it reinforces what’s happening.  Rosalyn’s swinging around the house to Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” is a fun moment of thematically-important comic relief and a sly homage to Tom Cruise’s pantomime in Risky Business, while one of the peaks of the film is when the Mexican Arab FBI agent goes to meet the mafia as Rosalyn and Sydney maneuver around each other.  This concentrated intersection of all the film’s characters and storylines reaches its highest intensity to the sound of an Arabic version of "White Rabbit."

American Hustle is a fun Friday night movie.  It doesn't push any boundaries, but with its acting, occasional bravura film-making, fun music and good intentions, this is a good night at the movies.