“I don’t
know what all the fuss is about” complained Mom as I talked to her on the phone
the other day. “It’s just another heist movie isn’t it? I got bored, quite
frankly, I didn’t even finish it.” I tutted at that, I highly disapprove of not
finishing films. I have done it only two or three times in my life, usually
when I felt a migraine coming on. Having recently watched American Hustle, I
feel the team putting the film together was well aware that there are a lot of
heist films out there. It’s a tricky one really, because heist films have a
legitimate fan base for their own sake. But if you want to step above and
beyond that fan base you need to do something different. Something different that, at the same time, is not going to
change the basic structure so much that it doesn’t alienate the fan base.
American Hustle has actually negotiated that fine line very successfully –
hence the Oscar nomination. There are those who, like Mom, are completely sick
of heist movies but well… You get those in every genre…
Irving
Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) has a nice
life all in all. He has a beautiful wife (Jennifer Lawrence) with whom he “fights
and f.cks” but ultimately cannot seem to separate from; he has a nice little
business running laundrettes with some art dealing on the side… Oh and he’s got
a second little side line as a con artist, taking from the rich and desperate
and giving to himself. Ok himself and his gorgeous business partner and lover
Sydney (Amy Addams). So there he is, rolling along, making a “decent” living
when… SLAM. The FBI. He is “nailed” by one of the FBI’s brightest, Richie
DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). Now, every hustler knows that everybody, and I mean
EVERYBODY has a weakness. The secret to survival lies in finding and abusing
it. Richie is over-ambitious. What starts off with a simple trade off with Irving
and Sydney – You get me a couple of big fish and I’ll make your charges go away
– spirals slowly and steadily out of control as Richie forever sees
opportunities to get bigger fish… Irving tries to warn him, not unsubtly, that
he is heading into very murky waters but Richie remains stubbornly blinded by
future glory… The question is, how far is he prepared to chase these dreams for
and how far will he end up falling from?
Now, in one
sense this is a common or garden heist film. I can, in that sense, see why Mom
got so bored of it. But then, let us not dwell on the similarities. We have already
covered that, the movie HAD to do it. The fans would get bored. Let’s
concentrate on the stuff the movie did differently. Because, let’s be fair to
the movie, it has done a substantial amount.
Now, first
up, our hero. You guys know how much of
a Leo DiCaprio fan I am right? Right. I have to begrudgingly admit that
although Leo is the main guy I support this year… Well… I won’t be that upset
of Christian Bale gets it. I may even be rooting for him a tiny bit. Because as
the heroes of heist movies go, Irving is quite a character. First of all, no
Ocean’s 11 style smooth, handsome hero here. Irving is overweight and has a “killer”
comb-over that gets a good few pages of dialogue all to itself. He has a
beautiful blonde “dolly bird” wife sure. But what is different is, he has a
COMPLICATED relationship with her. It’s a love-hate relationship, she’s
depressed, is she an adequate mother? These are matters that ACTUALLY preoccupy
us. We get to really know our characters in this film, as opposed to just reverting
to stock characters and using all our previous knowledge to just assume what
they’re like and move on. I mean then there’s Sydney. Her relationship with all
the characters involved. You literally never know where she’s going to turn
next, I mean you do, but the story is so cleverly designed that even a cynic
like me had her misgivings.
And while
we’re on the subject of characters, let’s have a word or two about Richie
DiMaso. There are two types of possible cop in these movies. Ye can have the conscientious
“good cop”, the hard-working, beetling antithesis to our “wise guy” heroes,
like the police officers in The Wolf of Wall Street. These guys ultimately
either win the day a la Wall Street or our heroes run rings round them, kinda
like a Road Runner cartoon. Or, we are made to “hate” the cop so that we love
the villain all the more – and ultimately the villain usually gets away. Richie…
Is neither! I mean ok, he is a sub-genre
of the second variety. Ultimately he does get on our nerves. He is that
over-ambitious type in the office who thinks, after taking two successful steps
he is basically the best there is. Better than everyone. He has it coming to
him a mile away and you know what, you kinda enjoy the smugness being wiped off
his face. But at the same time… I’ll let you discover it for yourself but he
has a bit of tough life. He is a bit of a “loser” in movie terms (and God knows
I hate that term in real life but I’m trying to make a point here) but… Eh, he’s
grey. He’s not black or white. Which makes this movie so great.
American
Hustle is a fun, solid mix of something old and something new. It very
successfully take a genre where it’s generally “goodies vs baddies” and made it…
Well made it closer to real life. All the characters across the board have very
real personalities and original personal tales. No one is a “stock” character. There
is a lot of grey and not much in the way of black and white. I mean yes, this
has meant giving up on originality in other areas sometimes but, like we said
at the beginning, we can’t afford to lose the fans now, can we? J Soo yeah. I guess I’m ok with it
getting a pat on the head. I’m not “outraged” about the nominations. I’ll have
something to say if it actually gets all ten Oscars® it is nominated for but
for that, dear ones, we have to wait for next week…
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