American Hustle - Review

Script + Plot - 6
Characters - 9
Actors - 7
Soundtrack - 8
Visuals + Sounds - 8
Editing + Cinematography - 8
Directing - 6
Effect - 5

Raw Overall Score - 7.125

Personal Overall Score - 6.9

Brief Overall Review: American Hustle is a film with an average script and a brilliant cast that don't know what to do with it, nor how to portray the complex characters designated to them. With a tasteful soundtrack that complements the look and feel of the movie along with the editing style and camera shots, the movie is a visual blockbuster where it is not an entertaining story. The movie is consumed with so much potential to be something great but is unfortunately handled poorly; a fault that remains heavily due to the director following the lack of vision and direction. Is it a comedy or a drama? It tries to be both but fails to be funny or particularly attention grabbing; where there are a few laughs and some emotional scenes, however something always tends to come and undo any small bit of cinematic gold the film has to offer. This film is an experience and a bit of a roller-coaster for the viewer.


Oscar Nod?

Despite this movie being nominated for a few Academy Awards, Artless Reviews will give this movie no Academy Awards in the categories nominated, simply due to better quality opponents in all categories. 

The only genres believed to be worth a serious consideration in the instance for this film would go to Best Film Editing and Best Supporting Actor.



Script + Plot - The plot for the movie is as follows: A con man, Irving Rosenfeld, along with his seductive British partner, Sydney Prosser, is forced to work for a wild FBI agent, Richie DiMaso. DiMaso pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia. (via IMDB). The plot for this movie is quite interesting and leaves a lot of scope for brilliant execution, however the script for this film exposes the poorly handled execution. It was a bit tough deciding whether the fault of this film was to do with the script itself or the way the actors delivered it. I came to the conclusion that to an extent it was both, however I believe the script played a significant and important role in the downfall of this film. An average script with unimaginative and quite predictable lines, sometimes this can often be covered up or made up for with the right delivery, however it was not the case for this movie; I give this section a 6.

Characters - The characters were exciting, interesting and well thought-out, whether they were well executed is a different matter. We were presented with characters that could keep a scene entertaining and had back stories that we were made aware of, and explained some of their characteristics. I don't recall any characters that were particularly dismissed in being fleshed out, and although some characters had the habit of going over the top, it didn't hinder the movie but actually added the entertainment effect that was missing in the remaining aspects of the film; a 9 for this category.

Actors - The review of the acting in this film caused me a bit of conflict, something was generally just 'off' about the acting in this film, sometimes it was that the script wasn't working for their part, or that the character just didn't suit the actor, or just that they simply failed to provide a believable performance in certain scenes when they were brilliant in others. Christian Bale's acting was spot on, and he produced the most believable character in the entire movie. Amy Adams was almost brilliant, her hindrance was in the 'British' accent she was given the delight to explore, regardless of if her accent was supposed to sound fake or not, the accent brought down a lot of scenes that could have been amazing had her accent sounded authentic, or had not been there at all. I was thoroughly impressed with Bradley Cooper's work and generally the rest of the cast did their best. All in all there were good performances but unfortunately not always believable performances, and some actors just weren't natural fits for their characters, with that I give this category a 7.

Soundtrack - The soundtrack was one of the few somewhat impressive things in the movie, I thought it enhanced the movie so well and gave what was otherwise a dull movie a bit of life and perspective. The soundtrack for the film definitely offered a unique feel and remained consistent in it's role in the movie. An 8 in this category.

Visuals + Sounds - There isn't much to say regarding the visual and sound effects in this film, nothing particularly stood out, besides the attempt at an authentic late 70s feel and look to the movie, which was better achieved than numerous other films before this one. Another 8 for this category.

Editing + Cinematography - The editors for this movie really spent time threading the scenes together, to create something actually worth seeing, the editing was generally well done in combination with the cinematography. The only slight qualm was in the scenes that were cut after the dialogue for the next scene had already begun. Usually it's standard in movies to have that every now and then, however it felt like it was overdone in this film and not applied quickly enough, it was an interesting way of editing but one that could have worked better if done differently, an 8 for the editing and cinematography aspect.

Directing - The direction for this movie was quite simply lost in all the little details of the film, from the complex characters with the average script, and from the dramatic scenes with the comic intent, it was all a bit of an ungoverned mess in the end. Russell may have gotten too involved with certain details while losing the view of the big picture for this film. A story needs to be well told to create the desired effect, and I'm afraid the directing in this movie did it no justice in presenting something really worthwhile and entertaining. Did this film even have an aim? If so, there was not enough direction to create any effect at all. A 6 for this category.

Effect - Last but not least, the movie had little to no effect regarding the viewer's emotions, feelings or opinions. By the end it seemed to be an average film covered in glamour and deception. The fact that I was displeased with the way the film ended did not help, it didn't feel like the film grew into a story worth telling at the end of the day. Through the process of watching I started out disappointed, but by the second half started to believe that the movie was actually going somewhere, but by the end that hope was lost and gone. The ending was a bit flat and really proved to the viewers that what they had watched was just wasted potential.



Who should watch it?

If you're a fan of Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Jeremy Renner or Bradley Cooper's work, if you're interested in movies from the 70s, or want to watch a film set in the 70s, if you love crime films, if you're interested in watching movies nominated this award season, if you want to see what it takes for a film to be nominated for an Oscar, if you have nothing else to watch really.

Oscar Nods?

Adding a new little extra section to my reviews for Academy Award Nominated movies where I briefly discuss my opinions on how much a film deserves the awards it is nominated for, these are my opinions and have nothing to do with predictions as well due to the fact that first of all I don't believe that half of the Oscar nominated movies deserve so much recognition in the first place and secondly the critics and the board will decide whatever the hell they decide.

In addition, at the time of writing my opinion it is likely that I have not even viewed half of the remaining nominees alongside the film.

My review for American Hustle shall be published in 5... 4... 3...

Review Tonight

Okay, back in the business, the review for American Hustle shall be published in a couple hours, so to be expected by the end of the day.

The next review of The Way, Way Back should be expected later this week, as I promised at least two reviews a month.

Have a good day!