American Hustle

Year 6, Day 256 - 9/13/14 - Movie #1,847

BEFORE: My week of lies and deception has led me here, to a film all about that, and the end of the Bradley Cooper chain.  Seems like the chains are getting shorter and shorter these days, but that's bound to happen as the films left on the list become more and more random.  Actually there are 4 actors carrying over from "Silver Linings Playbook", two with major roles tonight and two with minor ones, so, really you should have seen this one coming.  Same director as an added bonus.

THE PLOT:  A con man, along with his seductive partner, is forced to work for a wild FBI agent, who pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia.

AFTER: I'll be heading back to Atlantic City in a couple weeks - those casinos still owe me $80 from the last trip, and if I can't get it in cash, I'll take it in food from the buffets.  I've been there twice before, it seems I've always known it as a gambling mecca.  That's why I was so surprised to learn that gambling has only been legal in New Jersey since the mid-1970's - I've been around longer than legal gambling in Atlantic City?  I'm absolutely shocked.  Of course, illegal gambling has been taking place there since forever, or at least the 1920's.  

I also had no idea that the development of Atlantic City casinos was tied to the Abscam scandal of the 1970's.  Corrupt politicians in New Jersey (there's another shocker...) were doing whatever they could to get in on the action, including taking bribes from undercover FBI agents, thinking that the money was coming from an Arab sheik, and promising to fast-track the sheik's immigration process through special legislation, in order to make his investments in A.C. legal.  Yeah, but making him a citizen wouldn't have made the bribes legal - is that what the politicians thought?  

I sort of remember reading about Abscam when I was a kid.  I didn't really understand why someone was impersonating an Arab, or what crime was being committed.  I still don't fully understand it, because some would say that giving a politician money in exchange for him promising to do something that doesn't really need to be done might constitute entrapment, while others would say that you've got him dead to rights as soon as he picks up that briefcase.  

I liked the plot in this one, and the characters (except for the fact that Bale seemed to be playing much the same character that Tom Cruise did in "Tropic Thunder") and the way it got rightly treated as a "heist" film instead of, say, a political one.  But, there really was no need to start the film with a scene from the middle, and then jump back to when the main character was a kid to give us his complete back-story, and (eventually) catch up to where we started, just to play out that whole scene AGAIN.  I penalize for unnecessary time-jumping, don't you know.  

Really, the whole FILM is a flashback, to the time of discos and turntables.  And the fashion!  Velvet suits, plunging necklines, tight curls and nail polish - and that's just the men!  The women looked even better!  

Also starring Christian Bale (last seen in "Velvet Goldmine"), Jennifer Lawrence (also carrying over from "Silver Linings Playbook"), Robert De Niro (ditto), Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Louis C.K., Michael Peña, Elisabeth Rohm, Jack Huston, Paul Herman (yep, another carry-over from "Silver Linings Playbook").  

RATING: 7 out of 10 microwave ovens