That Seventies Show

As Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues showed, the 1970s was a time of bombastic clothing, economic mediocrity but also a creative flowering that has continued through to this day, not in its ingenuity but in its repetition.  It would be harsh to class American Hustle as unoriginal but David O. Russell's film does have many a seventies motif to go with the setting.  It's a homage to all those seedy political thrillers and the voiceovers, the put-upon Italian-American who lives at home with his parent(s), (thinking of Saturday Night Fever) and the gangsters of Martin Scorcese's early career.  Of course, clichés only exist because they have kernels of truth to give them life and Russell has superbly recreated a millieu that in lesser hands would have drifted into ill-judged parody (as there are many funny moments).
It starts with the scam artist Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale, excellent as always) meticulously pasting a toupée onto his combover and dressing smartly to cover his paunch - indicating that every aspect about Irving is fraudulent, from his activities to the image he presents to the world.  He meets with an associate, Richie diMaso (Bradley Cooper) and a female accomplice Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), who are trying to sting New Jersey mayor of Camden, Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) into accepting a briefcase packed with money as a bribe.  DiMaso's gauche eagerness ruins the transaction and as Irving races after Polito to smooth his feathers, the narrative unfurls to the past before seamlessly merging with the future.
It seems like an innocent love story between Irving and Sydney who go on to develop a commercial relationship in ripping off desperate suckers in the economic turmoil of the seventies (their first meeting is dated to the death of Duke Ellington in 1974 and they are forthright in their opinion of Jimmy Carter), as both Irveing and Sydney are permitted voiceovers.  However, it quickly emerges that Irving is still married to the phenomenal bimbo Rosalyn Rosenfeld (Jennifer Lawrence, brilliant again) who is also an expert at manipulation and deflecting all responsibility from herself.  At one point, she sends a microwave (which was a present from Polito to Irving) up in flames, after mocking the instructions not to put metal inside, which is symbolic in how she almost destroys the best laid plans of her husband and others.  Yet, she makes out this further fire in the home is not her fault.  Irving has also adopted her son and so he has vulnerable love to warm his cold blood.
At times, the movie plays us.  When Irving questions why Sydney has had two lunch dates with a potential mark, we think it is sexual jealousy but actually it turns out to be professional caution and very wise at that.  Irving and Sydney become beholden to FBI agent diMaso, who lives in a grim apartment with his mother who has a face like the flat of an iron and a fiancée who seems to have all the colour washed out of her.  His circumstances and competitive nature make him determined to not settle for what he has (which is understandable) but takes him into a situation that is spinning beyond his control and his mania leads to assault his immediate boss.  His patter allows him to escape being charged proving he is as much a con artist as Irving and Sydney.
DiMaso's plans initially centre on Polito but soon range much wider.  Polito was based on the real-life Angelo Errichetti who died in 2013.  Errichetti arranged bribes to pass to local politicians and even a national senator as part of waving through a regeneration plan.  In the film, this even extends to high-profile gangsters Robert di Niro has an uncredited role portraying another sociopath, Victor Tellegio (a play surely on Las Vegas' Bellagio casino); ironically, the actors in the positions of Tellegio's consiglieres do get a credit.
The movie at times does display the vaulting ambition of diMaso and is half an hour too long - partly, I was affected by entering the cinema with a mild headache and leaving it with less than mild throbbing behind my eyes.  Curiously, Irving and Sydney mention fleeing the USA for Romania (twice) and Estonia.  A move to behind the iron curtain would be a brave action - of all the countries to discuss to where one would take flight, these seem bizarre in a 1970s setting.  For sure, Ceaucescu was loosening his connections to the USSR, simultaneously being courted by the West and Romania would be just about viable as a destination.  But Estonia?  This was part of the USSR and it was a diplomatic fiction that the USA pretended it still existed as an independent entity.  Irving and Sydney would be treated as defectors, traitors to their home country and viewed with suspicion by their new one.  When so many aspects of the movie rang true, this jarred, though the caveat at the very start that "Some of this actually took place..." covers a multitude of sins.  Overall, I still prefer Russell's Three Kings, but it's better than I ♥ Huckabees.
The qualities of the picture overcome this.  It is continually interesting and usually exhilarating.  The A-List cast all deliver strong performances and Bradley Cooper is a revelation - this role is well tailored to his acting abilities.  Jennifer Lawrence nails her infuriating character but does smoke in a way that irritates real smokers (so I've read), inhaling and blowing straight out again.  Amy Adams is convincing in both her original American accent and her scamming English cut-glass voice - at times I forgot that her RP delivery isn't her character's natural sound.  Jeremy Renner plays Polito like Michael J. Fox in Spin City, which was the correct path - to make him a guy with whom we can have sympathy, even if he did veer on the shady side at times for the best of the community.  Christian Bale is professional in everything he does and you think of Irving rather than Bale when watching and listening.  The styling and the environment are lovingly conveyed by the production staff.  The movie prompted me to research what parts were true and it is good when a film can stimulate you like that.  Russell is a maverick, not dissimilar to Robert Altman who has his fair share of hits and misses.  The former could have a blowout in his next offering, but the light from American Hustle will last long.  Four out of five.