American Hustle is a movie I wanted to love but ended up disliking. I'll start with what it does right: Comedy. This movie wisely eschews the "Joke every 20 seconds" routine and instead builds its humor through awkward situations. Characters often do things sincerely that are made funny by the context, and they rarely figuratively wink at the camera. The acting helps; I enjoyed how Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Bradley Cooper took similar dialogue and each put their own quirks into it. Bale is scrutinizing and obfuscating, Adams is theatrical, and Cooper is confident yet sometimes bewildered.
The camera angles are creative. Despite the mundane historical setting, certain sets like the disco and Ocean add variety. Instead of statically the actors in these areas, the camera blinks around with a specific focus at each moment. This was distracting at the beginning, but I soon enjoyed its intensity.
The three main characters are all scumbags; even the naive FBI agent is ambitious. They're also charismatic; their ability to talk others to their ends is fascinating and often hilarious. I don't mind that cynical manipulation. What I do mind is the sickeningly saccharine relationship between Irving and his son, as well as eventually between Bale and Adams. Amongst all the dark humor, these scenes feel forced and tone-deaf. Worse, they try to make Irving and Sydney sympathetic, forcing the audience to ignore everything else involving those characters. The ending wraps up this subplot with a neat bow. Even Bale's sympathy towards the subject of his con jars; why would a longtime conman who no doubt comfortably spent time with his other victims stumble now?
The movie is also overlong. That doesn't mean that scenes are paced slowly; other than a few like Irving's combover at the beginning, the editing switches quickly between shots and there is always something new. The problem is that a lot of the shots and scenes feel unnecessary or redundant. One example that comes to mind is how three scenes between Bradley Cooper and Amy Adams happen the exact same way: They talk about something else, switch gradually to foreplay, and then decide to stop. Even with the character development between the three scenes, it was still treading too much similar ground.
I'm not sure who to recommend this film to; I didn't like it, but it has some good qualities.
Film Poor balance, but some good
American Hustle is a movie I wanted to love but ended up disliking. I'll start with what it does right: Comedy. This movie wisely eschews the "Joke every 20 seconds" routine and instead builds its humor through awkward situations. Characters often do things sincerely that are made funny by the context, and they rarely figuratively wink at the camera. The acting helps; I enjoyed how Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Bradley Cooper took similar dialogue and each put their own quirks into it. Bale is scrutinizing and obfuscating, Adams is theatrical, and Cooper is confident yet sometimes bewildered.
The camera angles are creative. Despite the mundane historical setting, certain sets like the disco and Ocean add variety. Instead of statically the actors in these areas, the camera blinks around with a specific focus at each moment. This was distracting at the beginning, but I soon enjoyed its intensity.
The three main characters are all scumbags; even the naive FBI agent is ambitious. They're also charismatic; their ability to talk others to their ends is fascinating and often hilarious. I don't mind that cynical manipulation. What I do mind is the sickeningly saccharine relationship between Irving and his son, as well as eventually between Bale and Adams. Amongst all the dark humor, these scenes feel forced and tone-deaf. Worse, they try to make Irving and Sydney sympathetic, forcing the audience to ignore everything else involving those characters. The ending wraps up this subplot with a neat bow. Even Bale's sympathy towards the subject of his con jars; why would a longtime conman who no doubt comfortably spent time with his other victims stumble now?
The movie is also overlong. That doesn't mean that scenes are paced slowly; other than a few like Irving's combover at the beginning, the editing switches quickly between shots and there is always something new. The problem is that a lot of the shots and scenes feel unnecessary or redundant. One example that comes to mind is how three scenes between Bradley Cooper and Amy Adams happen the exact same way: They talk about something else, switch gradually to foreplay, and then decide to stop. Even with the character development between the three scenes, it was still treading too much similar ground.
I'm not sure who to recommend this film to; I didn't like it, but it has some good qualities.