Brilliant con man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) has a good thing going with small cons with his partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) until they are forced to work for FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) to take down politicians involved in bribery.   Their first target is New Jersey mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) who becomes caught between the con-artists and the feds,   Irving knows he and Sydney must pull off the con of their life when the mob gets involved while he tries to control his volatile wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence).

 

David O. Russsell creates a movie that is much a product of the time period of the 1970s from the music to the fashion.  It is a really an actor’s movie as each actor gives great performances and some actors even give chameleon-like performances.   Jennifer Lawrence does steal any scene she is in, but Christian Bale does manage to go toe to toe with her.   The first half of the movie is a little awkward before delivering a dynamite second half.  Also watch out for an uncredited turn by Robert DeNiro as the head of a mafia family.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

22 minutes of 11 great deleted and extended scenes.   Jennifer Lawrence’s dance and lip sync performances in two scenes are just priceless (one of the scenes are seen in an edited form in the final movie).  The deleted scenes give more depth to the movie, but I do see some scenes like the two dance and lip sync scenes were cut for pacing and length.

 

THE MAKING OF AMERICAN HUSTLE is a sixteen minute making-of featurette which has interviews with cast and director David O. Russell as they talk about the story and characters

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  AMERICAN HUSTLE is an enjoyable movie with great production design and acting with the music helping to transport the viewer to another time period.  Jennifer Lawrence is the best actor in this movie and the deleted scenes are an extra not to miss.

 

This review is ©3-20-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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