AMERICAN HUSTLE

From the opening scenes when a bald and paunchy Irving Rosenfeld (a totally unrecognizable Christian Bale) stands in front of the mirror doing a painstaking ritual of sticking on a toupee and then doing the most ridiculous comb-over ever, you can immediately sense that you are in for a riot of a movie.  This wonderful 1970's stylish comedy caper directed and co-written by 3 time Oscar nominee David O Russell is as much fun as you will ever have at the movies.

Its very vaguely based on a real incident from that time when the FBI enlisted the services of a con man from the Bronx to lead an undercover operation called Abscam that included the creation of a fictitious Arab sheikh named Abdul and resulted in the conviction of six congressman and a United States Senator, among others.  But in this movie where everyone seems to be intent on conning each other its almost impossible to keep on top of the complicated plot at all times.  Not that spoils one's enjoyment at all, as the real pleasure is in the cast of extraordinary hysterically funny characters that make this such a sheer delight.

Irving is a small time con man and loan shark who although married to his stunning beautiful but batty wife Rosalyn, falls really hard for Sydney a tough bright cookie from New Mexico who transforms herself into English aristocratic Lady Edith Greensley complete with fake high-powered business connections in London. She makes Irving ratch the cons up a notch or two and soon the money starts rolling in.  But their success attract the attention of  the FBI  who set them up on a sting, and once caught they are persuaded to help entrap some bigger fish in exchange for the charges against them being dropped.

They now have to work for Ritchie DiMaso a would-be hot-shot Agent who puts curlers in his hair at night and still lives at home, but is so insanely ambitious he would happily beat his boss to a pulp to get his own way.  Ritchie is so manically intense about everything which often causes him to goof up as he gets in such a state, he cannot see the woods from trees. Played somewhat frenetically by a rather brilliant Bradley Cooper who manages to steal most of his scenes ...even the ones with Bale.

The three of them embark of a series of ambitious undercover stings which brings them closer together and so Sydney turns her romantic attentions towards Ritchie as Irving will not (or can not) let Rosalyn loosen her grip on him.  Jennifer Lawrence's completely over the top showy performance as Rosalyn is a deliciously funny comic highlight of the story, and as such is already attracting a lot of awards and nominations.

When the chips are down and their biggest entrapment looks like it is going horrible wrong it is the sleezy looking Irving that proves that once again he is the smartest man in the room, and no matter how bright the best FBI Agents are, you can never out-con a con man.

Mr Russell has not put one single foot wrong creating this, one of the very best movies of the year.  The sets, the costumes, the make-up, the hairstyles, the soundtrack etc. every little detail makes this movie soar so high.  He's reunited with some of his favorite actors that he has once again extracted award-winning performances from.  Besides Christian Bale (Oscar Winner 'The Fighter') who is totally superb in yet another career-best turn, there is the sublime Amy Adams (Oscar Nominated 'The Fighter'), Bradley Cooper (Oscar Nominated 'Silver Linings Playbook'), Jennifer Lawrence (Oscar Winner 'Silver Linings Playbook'), Robert DeNiro (Oscar Nominated 'Silver Linings Playbook). Plus two time Oscar Nominee Jeremy Renner, Jack Huston, Alessandro Nivola and Michael Pena.

I definitely want to see this one again.  Not to try and make sense of some of the complicated plot twists I may have missed, but simply to revel once more in the experience of so much joy that this well-crafted movie has.  Such excellence from Hollywood is a rare commodity, and fun needs to be repeated.  More than once.

★★★★★★★★★★