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| The Poster for American Hustle, David O. Russell film, http://www.americanhustle-movie.com/site/, fair use claimed |
Greetings All:
ast night, Dawn and I saw the movie, American Hustle. It’s the “hot” new film and I can see why. It is great. Before I go on with this blog- SPOILER ALERT, I will discuss the film and give a few things away. If you have not seen the film, and would like to, please stop reading now.
OK, my conscious is now clear. Here’s my take on this super movie. It is a good bit of entertainment, loosely
built around the Abscam scandal of the late 70s/early 80s. Although the movie is not factually accurate
100%, it’s great entertainment. The
three central characters are an uber-ambitious FBI agent and two con artists
who are forced to work with the Feds.
The supporting cast come off the bench and hit 3-point shots with
Jennifer Lawrence and Jeremy Renner and others.
I would be remiss not to add it’s a GREAT soundtrack. I did something I have not done in years and
purchased it (thank you iTunes.) There
is a nice mix of different stuff, including some killer ELO songs. My personal favorite is Mayssa Karaa’s haunting
remake of “White Rabbit.”
And for good measure, it’s got a cameo from
Robert De Niro. Now, please, tell me
what more could you want? The movie is
cleaning up in the pre-Oscar awards and it’s probably even money for it to be
the best picture at the Academy Awards.
As I am working on keeping my blog posts
shorter, I am electing to focus on what I see as one of the strongest parts of
the film, the theme of unhappiness or more precisely, the pursuit of
unobtainable happiness.
Bradley Cooper’s character of Richie DiMaso, the
driven FBI agent is Exhibit A of this point.
He’s so driven to bust the bad guys he goes to pretty crazy lengths to
keep the investigation going, including beating up his boss with a
telephone. For a while, the method to
his madness is working. For a while…
Exhibit B is Christian Bale’s character, Irving
Rosenfeld. Here’s a guy by his own
admission does what he has to do, “…to survive.” He’s hooked up with the very talented and beautiful
Amy Adams, a/k/a Syndey Prosser a/k/a Lady Edith Greensley. The only problem with this arrangement is
he’s married. That would be Roslyn,
Jennifer Lawrence’s character. Aside
from being forced to work for Richie, his “other wife,” Ros is a handful. He wants a divorce, she doesn’t. Throw in her kid, Danny (whom Irving adapted,
perhaps the only noble thing he’d done in his life) and Irving’s got himself a
situation. There is a scene where he
watches a Mobster putting the moves on Ros and without saying a word he gives a
monologue full of pain. Even through his
(presumably) Foster Grant glasses, his eyes display his agony.
This is just one example of how all the
characters binge drink from a cocktail of equal parts guilt and grief. Unfortunately for them, it’s an open bar.
All of the characters are looking for
something. For Ritchie, it’s the
bust. He’s going to bag some big game
and get credit for it. For Irving and
Sydney, they are looking for the exits.
For Ros, she’s looking for an instruction manual for life. Still, she finds her own way. I understand why Ms. Lawrence one the Golden
Globe for this role.
There are no real winners in this film and a
lot of losers. A few do survive. As far as happiness, well, I’ll let you be
the judge of that. At the end of the
day, it’s a movie. It is
entertainment. However, I wonder if the
reason we can take away life lessons from entertainment is that we’re not
expecting to learn anything. It just
creeps up on us. Kinda like the ending of
this movie. Oh, and a great soundtrack
doesn’t hurt either.
Be well my friends,
Jeno
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