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Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Opening with an enigmatic disclaimer stating that "Some of this actually happened", American Hustle begins as most 1970s-set crime capers do, with a flurry of obvious wigs, polyester suits and iconic chart music from the period. Unusually for the genre, however, it quickly reveals itself as an intelligent and deceptively self-aware character piece, with a New York conman (Christian Bale) and his lover/partner (Amy Adams) forced into assisting the FBI as penance for a series of loan frauds. Foregrounding the film's artificiality, writer/director David O Russell (The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook) uses his A-list cast to create a kind of adult pantomime, in which allegiances switch constantly and no one is ever quite who they seem. As is typical in a Hollywood movie, the two men - Bale and Bradley Cooper, as the FBI wild card - drive the story, but it is the women that provide the substance. Adams is terrific, playing Cooper off against Bale and vice versa, but Jennifer Lawrence steals the show as Bale's wife, a likeable ditz whose loose-lipped tendencies might at any minute instigate a bloodbath.

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Credits

Cast

rolename
Irving RosenfeldChristian Bale
Richie DiMasoBradley Cooper
Sydney ProsserAmy Adams
Rosalyn RosenfeldJennifer Lawrence
Mayor Carmine PolitoJeremy Renner
Pete MusaneJack Huston
Stoddard ThorsenLouis CK
Victor TellegioRobert De Niro
Paco HernandezMichael Pena
Dolly PolitoElisabeth Röhm
BrendaColleen Camp
Carl ElwayShea Whigham
Anthony AmadoAlessandro Nivola
Irv's sheikh plantSaïd Taghmaoui
Senator Horton MitchellAnthony Zerbe
Street thugDicky Eklund

Crew

rolename
DirectorDavid O Russell

Details

Theatrical distributor
Entertainment
Released on
2013-12-20
Languages
English | Arabic
Guidance
Swearing.
Available on
DVD and Blu-ray
Formats
Colour

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