Goodfellas go Boogie

MOVIE

American Hustle

Starring: Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence

Rated: M

Reviewer: Mark Naglazas

Score: 4.5 stars

The spirit of Martin Scorsese (especially Goodfellas) and Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights) animates David O.

Russell’s sprawling, hugely entertaining comedy American Hustle, a “fictionalisation” of the FBI’s notorious ABSCAM operation in which the agency set out to expose corruption but which itself came under investigation.

Christian Bale and Amy Adams play a pair of small-time con artists who are forced by a manic, careerist FBI agent, Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper), into capturing white-collar criminals.

The operation expands in scope and Bale’s Irving Rosenfeld and Adams’ Sydney Prosser find themselves at the centre of a dangerous sting to bring down the New Jersey mayor (Jeremy Renner) who will use any means necessary to bring investment to his impoverished town, including forging links with the Mafia.

Russell (Silver Linings Playbook) has never been the most measured of directors but his freewheeling style syncs beautifully with this crazed tale of an FBI agent’s ego and ambition going out of control and being fuelled by the excesses of the era (symbolised most hilariously by the Cooper character’s appalling curly perm).

While Russell’s prowling camera, slam-dunk editing and 1970s pop-classic soundtrack will thrill those who love pure cinema, the acting is the real centrepiece of American Hustle, with Bale stacking on the kilos to play the deceptively clever Irving and Adams injecting a mix of heart and killer instinct to her femme fatale Sydney. Cooper wonderfully nuts as the dumbest movie cop in memory and perhaps best of all is Jennifer Lawrence as Irving’s idiotic bombshell wife.