American Hustle is about two con artists, Irving Rosenfeld and Sydney Prosser, who after getting caught by FBI agent Richie DiMaso, are forced to help in a corruption case. Let me tell you that the only person getting conned after seeing that movie was me.
I was very excited about it because the trailer looked good, the cast contained great actors, and from the O. Russell’s movies I’d seen, I could expect something exciting and decent. I was unfortunately wrong.
It feels like I’m one of the few who really didn’t like that movie, as it gets very good critics everywhere. It failed to show a good story to catch on to and left me incredibly bored.
Uninteresting is probably the word I would use to describe that movie. First there is the characters, all empty and superficial. You can’t really see through them or determined if they are more than just what you can see. I felt absolutely nothing for them and I went through the movie wondering when does it end, which is quite sad.
Then there is the story in itself. O. Russell loosely based American Hustle on a real story, which could provide a good base for a good mafia-like movie, but it all fell apart and nothing makes real sense. You go from one scene to another without completely understanding what is happening.
Same goes with the characters, who suddenly completely change their attitude without any explanation. I get that the story is about a con and false appearances but after a while, It just gets very frustrating.
O. Russell doesn’t renew himself. His movies are based on the psychological side of his characters, and how they function (especially in Silver Linings Playbook which deals with bipolarity). But when you watch them all, even if you only concentrate on the very different stories, they feel very similar to each other.
That’s something that struck me, how similar SLP and American Hustle are, apart from Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. Unlike other filmmakers, he doesn’t seem to find a world of his own and the result is that he stops conveying emotions through his movies.
The only good point to give to American Hustle is the two main actresses, Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence, who both gave great performances (that scene in the bathroom gave me chills). On the other hand, Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale are useless. Bale is absolutely not convincing and let’s not talk about Cooper’s character that is just as stupid as he looks (remember what I said about the characters not being more than just what they appear to be, well Richie is the perfect example).
Even if they are one of the favorites in some categories for the Academy Awards this year (Jennifer Lawrence has a good chance of maybe winning her second Oscar this year), I really don’t recommend that movie. But it’s just a negative opinion in a sea of good ones, so maybe you’ll like it!
Rating: 1/5
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