American Hustle

Directed by David O. Russell.

2013. Rated R, 138 minutes.

Cast:

Christian Bale

Amy Adams

Bradley Cooper

Jennifer Lawrence

Jeremy Renner

Robert De Niro

Louis C.K.

Michael Pena

Shea Whigham

Elisabeth Rohm

Irving Rosenfeld (Bale) and his girlfriend (Sydney Prosser) are a successful pair of con artists with their hands in a few different pots. They're ripping fools off and keeping them on a string all while enjoying each other's company. Life is good. Things change when they get busted by ambitious FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Cooper). After applying some pressure, Richie tells the couple they can get off cleanly if they agree to help him make four more arrests. The problem in everyone's eyes except Richie's is that the targets get increasingly larger in profile and difficulty to ensnare. Complicating things even furhter is Irving's wife Rosalyn (Lawrence). She won't let her husband go even though it's obvious he no longer wants to be married, at least to her. She's also on the unstable side. Her unpredictability threatens to bring down the whole operation.

As he has in the past, director David O. Russell proves to be extremely adept at not only telling his story almost completely through dialogue, but having it remain entertaining all the way through. In a great many films, the words people are saying are merely perfunctory. Characters say enough to advance the plot. The trick Russell pulls is that in addition to propelling our story, these people seem to be living and dying with each conversation. It's something he used to great effect in Silver Linings Playbook. Here, he may have one upped himself. In SLP, the characters merely believed their lives were hanging in the balance as they spilled their guts. To an extent, they were as we were dealing with a number of people with fragile psyches. In American Hustle, that extent reaches the literal level. There is a real chance the our heroes will turn up dead as a result of one conversation or another.

To make all that talking work, Russell needs the help of his magnificent cast. The ensemble delivers and then some. Much of the hype surrounding this movie's performances focused on the work of the two ladies we see most: Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence. Both are tremendous and more than earned their Oscar nominations. Adams continues a recent stretch of excellent performances that started with her turn in The Master and even includes her underrated work in Man of Steel. This time, she shows us a woman who is smart, despite some of her own decisions. She's in love with a guy that she recognizes she can never fully have if she continues to stay with him the way things are. She also know she can't reach the heights she aspires to without him. Meanwhile, Lawrence gives us another phenomenal portrayal of a woman with questionable sanity. When this past awards season rolled around I started to read and hear a lot of moaning and groaning about the love Lawrence was getting. Most accused the Academy of favoritism, or just giving her a nod because she's a popular and highly bankable actress. I think she was legitimately outstanding. She shared scenes with Adams, Cooper, and most often, Bale, and each time she was the most captivating person on the screen.

None of this is to suggest that the men were not good. As a group, they were just as good as the ladies, if not better due to sheer quantity. Bradley Cooper continues to distance himself from being just a pretty face. The fact that we can feel his character's ambition jumping off the screen earned him an Oscar nomination, too. Also continuing is David O. Russell's resurrection of Rober De Niro. For the first time since the 1990s, we get a totally scary Bobby D. He only gets a few minutes of screen time, but it is an intense pocket of time. On the opposite end of the spectrum is comedian Louis C.K. as Cooper's boss. It's a wonderful comic relief role that he pulls off without doing anything that would qualify as zany. Between DeNiro and C.K. is a perfect Jeremy Renner as Mayor Carmine Polito. Everything about him feels exactly right.

Then there's Christian Bale. He once again throw his entire body into his work, physically transforming into the person he's playing. Lots of actors, some excellent ones included, simply play themselves in multiple movies. This isn't the case with Bale. Trevor Reznik (The Machinist), Dicky Eklund (The Fighter), and Bruce Wayne (The Dark Knight Trilogy) all share a similar face, but are very clearly different men. Bale completely disappears into his characters and Irving Rosenfeld is no exception. It yet another impressive turn by an amazing actor.

The larger plot, the one about trying to make the busts, is really of secondary importance to our enjoyment of American Hustle. It's an interesting tale that provides some tense moments, but it isn't what compels us to watch. The dynamics between the various characters is what does this. How these people interact and feel, or don't feel, for each other keeps us engaged. Whether or not any of them is someone we like is debatable. What is not open for discussion is that these are magnetic personas. We struggle to peel our eyes away from any of them. We can also see each of their points of view. This helps us understand their motivations. Armed with this knowledge, we can easily empathize with them as their various objectives seem to get further away. Propelled by an amazing cast and enhanced by sure direction, American Hustle is a very enjoyable experience.

Silver Linings Playbook

Directed by David O. Russell.

2012. Rated R, 122 minutes.

Cast:

Bradley Cooper

Jennifer Lawrence

Robert De Niro

Jacki Weaver

Chris Tucker

John Ortiz

Julia Stiles

Anupam Kher

Shea Whigham

Paul Herman

Dash Mihok

Brea Bee

We meet Pat Solitano Jr. (Cooper) as his mother Delores (Weaver) is picking him up from a mental healthcare facility. After a brief hiccup involving Paul’s buddy Danny (Tucker), they drive to their home in Philadelphia where they surprise his dad, Pat Sr. (De Niro). In short order, we learn Pat Jr. was sent away after a series of delusions culminated in a violent attack of the man his wife Nikki (Bee) was having an affair with. We also learn that he is obsessed with winning back her love despite the fact she’s moved away and has a restraining order out on him. Pat Jr. working extremely hard to prove himself worthy of her love while dealing with his demons ensues.

Through his unfiltered speech, therapy sessions and his family’s handling of him, Pat’s mental condition is thoroughly explored. In particular, we see the possible seeds of his problems through his father’s behavior. Pat Sr. is superstitious to a point of ridiculousness, even to his son. It’s part of what is evidently OCD. During the games played by his beloved Philadelphia Eagles remote controls have to be held a certain way, people have to sit in certain spots, etc. We know he’s prone to violent outbursts because we’re told he’s been banned from the stadium where the Eagles play after having been kicked out several times for beating people up. To show us this, the legendary De Niro gives one of his best performances in years. He’s fully a man stressed over his new line of business (basically, betting on Eagles’ games), exasperated by what’s become of his son’s life and beholden to his own artificial devices for creating luck. His interactions with Pat Jr. often turn confrontational.

Caught between the two is Delores. In the role of a mother supportive of both her men, sometimes to a fault she totally recognizes, Jacki Weaver does an excellent job conveying her character’s raggedness from being pulled to and fro. She tries to do right by everyone and often winds up little more than an enabler.

Then there’s Tiffany Maxwell. Played by Jennifer Lawrence. We quickly realize she’s as mentally and emotionally fragile as Pat Jr., but with a tougher shell. She’s the sister-in-law of another of Pat’s friends and a widow whose way of dealing with her issues is much to the delight of the men in the area. She also has occasional contact with Nikki and is willing to deliver messages to her from Pat Jr. making her invaluable in his eyes. Again proving herself a superior talent, Lawrence’s portrayal is note-perfect all the way through. Always at the appropriate times, she’s stand-offish, emotional, manipulative, confident and never quite stable.

Yes, the acting across the board is top-notch. If you need further evidence, every actor mentioned in this review, with the exception of Chris Tucker and Brea Bee, has earned an Oscar nomination for their work in this film. Truth told, Tucker is actually pretty good and Bee’s character has so little screen time she’s more a concept in Pat’s mind than an actual person. Aiding them mightily is the crisp dialogue, often improvised from what I’ve heard, and expert directing by David O. Russell. He’s made a cottage industry for himself of movies about contentious, not quite sane people. After all, his last movie was another wonderful flick full of folk who communicate at elevated decibels, The Fighter. This one inserts more comedy, but not of a crass or exploitive type. Laughs come from more true to life situations.

While we enjoy watching Silver Linings Playbook, we can’t help but spot the ending from very early on in the proceedings. That’s because at its core this is a date-movie, an unabashed romance. It does nothing if not march relentlessly toward the big kiss. Even this is preceded by our hero chasing down his true love after a wise elder tells him to go after her. This is pretty standard chick-flick stuff, but in David O. Russell’s capable hands it is far better than most of its ilk.