Movie Review: American Hustle, A masterpiece of ensemble acting

MANILA, Philippines - David O. Russell has found a nice convenient way to make filmmaking easy. He put together his own stable of stars. Not just stars, really, but excellent performers who have proven they can immerse themselves inside any role and emerge believable. How else would you explain why he had Christian Bale and Amy Adams from his The Fighter, and Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro of his Silver Linings Playbook all together in the Oscar nominated American Hustle? Russell was playing favorites. 

On the other hand though, I cannot really say they accepted their roles to do Russell a favor. Hollywood’s hottest young director is a whiz at creating memorable characters and he came up with some of his best for his latest picture. Who would not want to be a part of that? And just like what happened before, his choices were exactly on target and American Hustle has since then been bopping off legends like Martin Scorsese and Tom Hanks off the movie awards contenders gird.

American Hustle won the Golden Globe for Best Picture Musical or Comedy and is now up for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. As for the stellar cast, they had been rounding up nominations from everywhere. Already winners at the Globes are Adams as Best Actress for Musical or Comedy and Lawrence as Best Supporting Actress and the entire cast got one for Outstanding Performance by an Entire Cast at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. The movie is now showing in town and time now for us to find out if it is truly deserving.

As Russell himself says invitingly in his title card: “Some of this actually happened.” And there were, indeed, similar characters and situations somewhere back in the late ’70s in the US. Hustle tells the story of Irving Rosenfeld a smart, small-time hustler played by Bale. Aiding and abetting his shenanigans is his lover with a British accent, Sydney Prosser played by Adams. Because she is not as smart as Irv, she gets them into a situation where they are forced to work with Richie DiMaso, an FBI agent played by Cooper, who is also of the small-time, slimy variety, but eager and determined to make it to the top.

Richie finds his golden opportunity in a sting operation he puts together to capture corrupt government officials with Rosenfeld as his collaborator. The biggest fish is Carmine Polito, a New Jersey mayor played by Renner. But it turns out that there are items that DiMaso is not able to factor into the scheme. Rosenfeld, it turns out, has a wife who he thinks is stowed safely away in the suburbs of New Jersey. Played with uncanny brilliance by Lawrence, Mrs. Rosenfeld is a flirtatious, absent-minded floozy who is not about to lose her husband and might just bring DiMaso’s plans crumbling down. Oh and also unexpectedly, Rosenfeld has a conscience.

As these actors’ decision to be in the movie already clearly says, the characters are the best thing about American Hustle. The plot has a lot of promise but needs somebody like a Steven Soderbergh of Ocean’s Eleven and Traffic to sew up all its ends to an involving and coherent conclusion. But it is such a joy watching the characters, all so wonderfully realized, reaching the outcome that awaits them. 

However, the way Russell put American Hustle has got me thinking. His attention to detail, for instance. Check out how the hairstyles, the loud, gaudy settings, the erratic photography and the jazz and rock music in the soundtrack all contribute to the progress of the story. These are conmen who are up to no good and they are presented rotten, broken and splattered all over the place. Real life is like that. Nothing is really tidy enough to be enclosed in a box. There are loose ends every time. American Hustle is about these pieces. They should be cut off and discarded but Russell has made watching them in their efforts to survive to be inside the box, fun.

I am glad that the SAG has presented the movie with the entire cast award. The ensemble here is the thing. Just imagining how it would play with other actors already throws the picture off-kilter. But it is not only the actors who are brilliant. Russell has also accomplished something unique in the movie. To our delight he just made the hodgepodge the delicious main dish. What he will serve up next should be interesting. I do hope though that whatever it is will not have Lawrence or Bale, etc. or I might start thinking it is the actors and not Russell putting his pictures together. Besides, it is not good to be predictable in the movies.